In many ways, Tootsie Lama is like any eight-year-old girl in the small hilly town of Darjeeling. But in many ways, she is completely different she lives on her own, goes to bed whenever she likes and cooks her own meals. One day Tootsie decides she would really like a delicious steaming bowl of thukpa, just like her Aama used to make it. Now all she needs is a plan.

Read an excerpt from the book:

Chapter 1

In many ways Tootsie Lama was like any average eight-year-old girl in the small hilly town of Darjeeling. She loved her days out in the sun – picnicking on fresh green grass, cycling up the hills, rolling down, swimming in the pond, climbing rocks and the occasional, rather brave, swinging from the branches of young pine trees. She equally liked the not- so-sunny days – where she danced in the rain, made mud tunnels, crossed streamlets trying to catch a fish or two; or when she stayed in to beat the cold, read under her blanket-tent and draw to her heart’s content. In all other ways, Tootsie’s life had not turned out like any child her age would have imagined.

She didn’t recall much of her early years. She didn’t remember having any parents, siblings, aunts or uncles – only a passing memory of foggy days and feeling shivering cold as she squatted beside other soot-covered kids from the streets, rummaging for food in the bins.

Her first vivid memory was of a kind couple picking her up from under a railway bridge and taking her home.

There, inside the small red-brick house, by the burning fireplace, she had her first full warm meal – thukpa,