Books
"A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence."
—Hindi proverb
Coming August 2022
No Ordinary Thursday
On the same night, two decisions are made that will tear a family apart.
The Sharma family is not as close as they once were. With 36-year-old Maya dating a man twelve years her junior, and her younger brother Sameer threatening to go off the rails any day, both grown-up children are finding ways to go against the values of the traditional, wealthy Indian community they grew up in—to the great disappointment of their mother, Lena.
When the events of one supposedly ordinary Thursday lead to a marriage proposal and a fatal car accident, an already broken family is sent into free-fall. Brother and sister find themselves reassessing their lives as Sameer’s experience in prison causes him to begin reliving a childhood trauma that he has kept to himself for eighteen years while becoming pregnant has Maya wanting to escape the judgment of a society she was born into but never chose. With Maya and her fiancee fleeing the city to stay in the nearby town of Paradise, Lena is left questioning everything she thought was important in life. As the consequences of that shocking Thursday continue to reverberate, it is up to Lena to piece her family back together—but life has more challenges, including prison violence, and the deadliest California wildfire in history, to throw at the Sharmas yet . . .
2019 Pushcart Prize Nominee
The Awakening of Meena Rawat
Every day, twenty-eight-year-old Meena Rawat is hounded by inner voices reminding her to be grateful for the middle-class American life she has-even if she is stuck in an unhappy marriage. She and her daughter are both safe, clothed, and fed, more than she could say for herself as a child. Born into the "Untouchables" caste in a small village in North India, Meena frequently relives the nightmare of abuses and slurs she suffered in an orphanage. There is only one bright spot in her memories: the fellow 'Untouchable' orphan who became her best friend and first love, Ramu.
When Ramu reappears in her new American life, he's different. Unlike her, he has cast off the shame of their upbringing and become a confident entrepreneur. Their meeting rekindles a lost passion and the two find they share a mutual sense of obligation to help the children of the outcast community they left behind. Meena fantasizes about a future with him, but will her responsibility to her daughter-and the certainty that she would lose custody-keep her chained?
2015 Beverly Hills Book Award
The Rummy Club
The Rummy Club is a contemporary women's novel about the intertwined fates of four women from India . They met in their teen years at an all-girls’ boarding high school, nestled in the Himalayas . Now in their 40's, the lives of Mini, Divya, Alka, and Priya have brought each of them to the SF Bay Area. Sharing secrets since their teenage years, they reunite, and gather weekly to play the Indianized version of rummy. The novel provides a snapshot of the Indian diaspora in the context of 21st century America.
Now the friends’ lives are all in crisis. Wealthy Alka’s abandoned ambitions and her dissatisfying marriage have turned her into an obsessive Tiger Mother. Big-hearted Priya must face the truth about her collapsing marriage. Divya herself lies awake at night struggling with her envy of the comfortable stability her friends have already attained. And, in one unexpected moment, beautiful Mini suddenly becomes a widow, and begins dating a white guy. When Alika’s son attempts suicide and Divya’s frustrated longing for the American Dream spill over into the rummy game, their once dependable world is torn apart. Will Alka’s son survive? Will Alka and Divya repair their friendship? Will Priya’s fledgling business and her blossoming relationship with a Hispanic hunk survive? Will Mini marry a WASP? Will the four friends ever play Rummy together again?
My Books
No Ordinary Thursday
Coming August 2022
The Awakening of Meena Rawat
The Rummy Club
My First Published (Nonfiction) Book
Law: What It's All About and How to Get In
My first book, "Law; What It's All About and How to Get in" was published by Twenty-Twenty Media, a publishing company in New Delhi, India, that brought out a series of 'Dummies' style books in the 90's about different careers open to college grads.
The Rummy Club
Book Club Discussion
Questions/Prompts for your Book Club Discussions
The Rummy Club is Joy Luck Club with an Indian cultural twist.
