City gallerist Jamal Mecklai’s new book Love Joy and Silliness (Notion Press) is a light-hearted story of a pig called Shri Vindaloo, who lives in Goa and loves a good tango and massage. He falls in love with all the female pigs he meets, celebrating the wonderful qualities in them, and is loved back for his joyous spirit and big heart. The stories are not chronologically arranged. They are written to be consumed as snippets of events that take place in the pig patriarch’s life through his travels to Leningrad, New York, California, Mexico, and San Miguel, among other places.

Mecklai injects humour by introducing the anthropomorphic pig character as the protagonist. Through his story, he teaches us to love and live with a smattering of silliness. Other characters are equally delightful, and flit in and out of the narrative, like a breeze. Shri Vindaloo’s relationship with “the pig of all seasons”, the fado singer EunicePig, in particular is endearing. He respects her, empathises with her when her husband abandons her, and helps her return to singing, after witnessing her silence for days. Meanwhile, EunicePig takes care of his day-to-day matters, like helping him book tickets to meet lady pigs and his friends across the world.