"And then came the elephants! He half-heard, half-saw something moving. Gigantic forms lumbering by on velveteen toes, ears aquiver, trunks aloft, sensitive nostrils twitching and turning like the periscopes on a shoal of jungle submarines."

Sometimes comical, sometimes poignant, always gripping, Jungle Submarines follows the real-life adventures of Botch as he grows up with his eccentric family – Papa the stoic, Mama the passionate, Minu the thug, Anu the stubborn, and Nini the sweet –  in a country and a world that is charmingly disorganized. Papa's job takes him and the family from the swampy jungles of Bihar to the dusty deserts of Iraq, from the cool wetness of Coonoor to the hot dryness of Hyderabad; and this pageant of life teaches Botch about happiness and sadness, glory and defeat, strength and weakness, but above all about trust and family.