Balan, growing up in the small cantonment towns of Ambala and Jammu in the 1960s, is the son of a junior army officer. His is a packed life, with tough schoolmasters, homework and games with playmates to keep him busy. And, above it all, is the strange species called adults, who have a curious understanding of life. The story follows Balan’s struggles as he grows up and enrols at IIM Ahmedabad. He is certain one of his fellow students is his childhood friend. But she is not who he thinks she is – she says so herself. Balan, though, is not convinced and returns to a despoiled Jammu to find out the truth. Return to Jammu is a story of growing up, with its heartache of losing close friends and a childhood sweetheart, and eventually making one’s way in the world. Warm, personal and deeply evocative of the early years of one’s own as well as the life of a nation, much like R.K. Narayan’s Swami and Friends, it reveals a new side to bestselling author V. Raghunathan.