"Bollywood in a Book"
- mainstream and romantic women's fiction set in India and the United States...
Women's Fiction with a touch of romance and sometimes a little mystery is what I generally write. I like to incorporate the rich elements of my Indian culture: religious beliefs, myths, legends, superstitions, foods, scents, recipes, clothing, accessories, language including slang, history, geography, and most anything that I feel adds to your entertainment and knowledge.
I like taking my readers on adventures where they not only see different places and taste, smell and touch through my characters, but experience their thrills, joys, sorrows and triumphs..
How did my six novels come about?
The ideas for my books are generally sparked by my interest in women's social issues, especially South Asian women. While subjects like dowry and female feticide are rather dark, they have always fascinated me because they become convenient tools of evil for certain people.
I want to offer folks outside India a peek into certain elements of contemporary Indian culture that are not often discussed in fiction, i.e. dowry abuse, selective gender-based abortions, and pre-marital sex in a repressive society.
Another reason I write my books is because Indian authors typically don't write commercial and mainstream fiction. Most of them write literary novels that are beautiful but don’t always reach large segments of the reading public - those readers who want to learn about other cultures, but want to be entertained at the same time, with stories that have romance, mystery, pathos, and humor. I want to give those readers something to sink their teeth into.
So for all those reasons, THE DOWRY BRIDE, THE FORBIDDEN DAUGHTER, THE SARI SHOP WIDOW, THE UNEXPECTED SON, THE FULL MOON BRIDE, and THE RELUCTANT MATCHMAKER became projects that I felt compelled to write. I was probably destined to write them. I firmly believe in destiny, fate, karma, kismet, whatever its name is. And I also have tremendous faith in astrology and horoscopes.