Contemporary Authors

• When Dimple Met Rishi ( young adult novel) Simon Pulse (New York, NY), 2017

1. When Dimple met Rishi LCCN 2016023129 Type of material Book Personal name Menon, Sandhya, author. Main title When Dimple met Rishi / Sandhya Menon. Edition First Simon Pulse hardcover edition. Published/Produced New York : Simon Pulse, 2017. Projected pub date 1111 Description pages cm ISBN 9781481478687 (jacketed hardcover) CALL NUMBER PZ7.1.M473 Whe 2017 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms

• Germ - http://www.germmagazine.com/the-story-behind-when-dimple-met-rishi-by-sandhya-menon/

  The Story Behind ‘When Dimple Met Rishi’ by Sandhya Menon
  Apr 7, 2017
  Although I never did have my marriage secretly arranged by my parents (and thank goodness—I doubt they could have ever found me someone as adorable as Rishi), I’ve definitely felt the same generational/cultural clash with my family as Dimple struggles with in When Dimple Met Rishi.

  I moved to the US from India when I was fifteen years old. Growing up a teenager in two different cultures didn’t make things any easier! I distinctly remember having a conversation with a well-intentioned relative in which she insisted that, as a married woman one day, I would need to cultivate the fine art of dressing up for my husband daily before he arrived home from work. Like Dimple, I nearly had an apoplectic fit, which only mystified everyone else.

  It was also hard for my family to understand my need for creative freedom. Like Rishi with his comic art, I was told that while writing was nice, it was not a career respectable Indian girls had. They strongly encouraged me to enter medicine instead, even though by then I had showed no aptitude whatsoever for biology and had even ran out of the room bawling when my teacher insisted I dissect a fetal pig. (She took pity on me and let me write a paper about genetics instead.)

  As I developed into teenagehood, I felt like I never quite belonged anywhere. My friends back in India were too far away to really be a part of my life anymore, but my American friends had no idea of the cultural nuances of my life at home. When my mother wore her sindoor, a red powder along the parting in her hair that showed she was married, people frequently stopped us in a mild panic to inform her that she was bleeding! As a teenager, it made me want to seep through the floor and disappear. All I wanted was to fit in and not draw attention to myself.

  But as I got older, that started to change. I began to find ways to integrate both parts of myself, Indian and American, into my daily life. I began to own the Indian parts of me, like my affinity for Bollywood movies or the fact that I can switch seamlessly between a flawless American accent and a flawless Indian one, depending on who I’m speaking to. I got better at blending these things into the parts of me that are unassailably American now. I’m much more career-minded than suits my more traditional Indian family members, for example; they don’t understand why I feel the need to write books and go to graduate school when I could be a stay-at-home mom.

  Writing When Dimple Met Rishi was a way to speak to teenagers and young adults who might be in any of those stages I went through or somewhere in between. It’s a book for people who’ve ever considered ignoring their heritage because it would be so much easier, in some ways, but for whom that choice doesn’t feel quite right. It’s also for people who want to embrace their heritage but don’t know how to do so in a way that makes sense for them. And it’s for people who have ever looked at their family and gone, “There is just no way we’re related.” Believe me, I’ve been there.

  Sandhya Menon was born and raised in India on a steady diet of Bollywood movies and street food, hence her obsession with happily-ever-afters, bad dance moves, and pani puri. Now she lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with her husband and children. Visit her website at www.sandhyamenon.com and follow her on Twitter @smenonbooks and on Instagram @sandhyamenonbooks.

• Sandhya Menon Home Page - https://www.sandhyamenon.com/bio/

  Sandhya / sun-dhya / sun-dee-ya for non-Hindi speakers noun
  [Hindi = dusk, twilight]
  Bestselling novelist of Indian origin, currently living in the United States.

  It me.

  It me closer.

  It my cat.

  PUPPER.
  Non-nerdy Bio:
  Hi, hi!
  My name is Sandhya Menon, and I’m a New York Times and national indie bestselling author. I write books for teens (and those who still feel like teens inside!). I currently live in Colorado, where I’m on a mission to (gently) coerce my husband, son, and daughter to watch all 3,221 Bollywood movies I claim as my favorite. Also, I love my pets a little too much, as you can probably tell.
  My YA contemporary novel WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI is out now. Buy here or add it on Goodreads if you like!

  Want to know more about me? Here are some fun questions from my Twitter peeps!

  Fave Bollywood movie: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Must. Watch.
  Who is your OTP? Suri and Taani from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi for movies, or Isla and Josh for a bookish romance.
  Food you can’t live without: Curry! Any kind, really, but I especially love coconut-based curries.
  Favorite books you read as a child/teen: I loved Enid Blyton’s Mallory Towers series! I also devoured Fear Street books, Archie comics, and Tin Tin comics.
  Fave dessert: I am a dessert NUT. I’ve never met one I didn’t like. If I had to pick one, it’d be something to do with Nutella or chocolate.
  What is your weird superpower? I see words in my head when I talk. That’s why I’ve always been good at spelling!
  What do you snack on while writing? Chocolate! Usually something small, like mini Kit Kats.
  How do you share Indian culture with your kids? It’s not easy because we don’t live in a heavily Indian community. But I share a lot of stories about my days in India, and whenever possible, I show them pictures of my relatives and different ceremonies (weddings, naming ceremonies, etc.). I also teach them Hindi words, the correct pronounciations of things, and–one of the most fun things–we eat a lot of Indian food! Recently my relatives from India gave them Amar Chitra Katha comics, which they LOVED.
  First crush: Johnny Depp from 21 Jump Street. I was 10, and I fell hard. (Shah Rukh Khan was next, though, and that crush has lasted YEARS. Did I say “has lasted”? Oops. (Call me, SRK.))
  Favorite guilty pleasure: The Twilight books and movies (although, tbh, I don’t feel especially guilty about reading/watching these! Read what you like, I always say!)! I re-read and re-watch them every year.
  How do you want your writing to evolve throughout your career? Do you always want to write YA? I’m focused on writing YA for the next couple of years at least, but who knows where things will take me? That’s the great thing about a writing career–you can constantly reinvent yourself if you get bored. 🙂
  What’s your Hogwarts house? When I took the test, I got Gryffindor. Knowing myself, though, I’d say I’m more like a Gryffilpuff.
  Your go-to writing music: I can’t listen to music while I write; I need total silence. (I’ve been known to take ear plugs to the library…). BUT I love thinking of playlists. The song Piku from the Hindi movie of the same name really reminds me of Dimple. And the entire Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi soundtrack is perfect for WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI!
  What are your favorite ice cream flavors? Chocolate and peanut butter all the way, yo!
  Where’s your dream home? As in, city or country. I think I’m pretty lucky because I’ve wanted to live in Colorado for years now, and I finally moved here. I love living in the mountains!

• Sandhya Menon Home Page - https://www.sandhyamenon.com/faq/

  Hello, dear reader friends! Here I’ve compiled some questions I get asked…wait for it…frequently! If you have additional questions, feel free to contact me.
  1. When does WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI come out?
  It’s out now! Visit my books page to see where you can buy it.
  2. How do you pronounce Rishi?
  Rhymes with “fishy”!
  3. Are you more a Dimple or a Rishi?
  I swear this isn’t a cop-out, but I’m both! I’m fiercely feminist like Dimple, which hasn’t always sat well with some of my elderly relatives, and like Rishi, I had to really struggle with art versus practicality! (You can probably guess what side of the coin I fall on that one… ;))
  If you want to see whether you’re more a Dimple or a Rishi, check out this short, fun quiz I helped create!
  4. When does your next book come out?
  FROM TWINKLE, WITH LOVE, my next YA contemporary, will be out in the summer of 2018!
  5. What’s it about?
  Aspiring filmmaker and wallflower Twinkle Mehra has stories she wants to tell and universes she wants to explore, if only the world would listen. So when fellow film geek Sahil Roy approaches her to direct a movie for the upcoming Midsummer Night arts festival, Twinkle is all over it. The chance to publicly showcase her voice as a director? Dream come true. The fact that it gets her closer to longtime crush, Neil Roy—aka Sahil’s twin brother? Dream come true x 2.
  When mystery man ‘N’ begins emailing her, Twinkle is sure it’s Neil, finally ready to begin their happily-ever-after. The only slightly inconvenient problem is that, in the course of movie-making, she’s fallen in love with the irresistibly adorkable Sahil.
  Twinkle soon realizes that resistance is futile: The romance she’s got is not the one she scripted. But will it be enough?
  Told through the letters Twinkle writes to her favorite female filmmakers, From Twinkle, With Love navigates big truths about friendship, family, and the unexpected places love can find you.
  Check it out and add on Goodreads!
  6. What are your favorite Bollywood movies?
  Oh my gosh, too many to name! But here’s a good list to get you started:
  Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
  Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (considered a classic by many!)
  Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
  Kapoor and Sons
  Bang Bang
  Krrish
  Chalte Chalte
  Queen
  7. Are you coming to a city near me?
  I might be! Check out this page for the most current information. Hope to see you!
  8. I want to keep up with what you’ve got going on. How can I do that?
  Thank you for asking–you’re the cat’s knees and the bee’s pajamas! Wait a minute… Anyway, if you want to stay updated on bookish news, win ARCs, and generally see what shenanigans I’m up to, sign up for my newsletter here!
  9. Can I get signed copies of your books?
  Yes! You can email my local indie bookstore, Tattered Cover, to have them ship a signed copy to you! It’s a great way to support a small business and get a signed book at the same time. Win, win. 🙂

When first love collides with tradition
Linda M. Castellitto
BookPage.
(June 2017): p29.
COPYRIGHT 2017 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
Full Text:
Fans of romantic comedies love a meet cute, and in her young adult debut, Sandhya Menon adds an Indian tradition to
this time-tested trope: Her characters' parents have arranged their marriage.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
As When Dimple Met Rishi opens, 18-year-old Dimple Shah has graduated from high school and been accepted to
Stanford. She loves iced coffee and coding, but not her mother's incessant harping about her appearance and future
wifehood. She's thrilled when her parents send her to Insomnia Con, a summer program for budding coders at San
Francisco State University. On the first day, Dimple sits on the SFSU campus, eyes closed, sipping iced coffee and
feeling hopeful that maybe, just maybe, her parents were "finally beginning to realize she was her own person, with a
divergent, more modern belief system."
But her tranquility is shattered when she hears a friendly male voice say, "Hello, future wife." A horrified shriek and an
iced-coffee-flying-through-the-air later, Rishi Patel is left dripping, and Dimple (fleeing at a dead sprint) is worried she
has a stalker.
This doesn't seem like an auspicious beginning to a beautiful relationship, but--thanks to Menon's warm, funny
characters and a story that sensitively and evenhandedly explores what happens when traditional values and modern
ideas collide--readers know better.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
At first, though, Dimple doesn't. She's spent so many years defending herself against her relentlessly overbearing
mother that's she's understandably twitchy about dating. Besides, she's at Insomnia Con to code! Rishi, who's been
accepted to MIT, is there to code, too--but also because his and Dimple's parents plotted to throw them together and
nudge them toward marriage.
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"I think arranged marriage is still fairly misunderstood in America," Menon says from Colorado, where she lives with
her husband and two children. "On TV, you usually see really old guys marrying helpless, vulnerable women, but that's
not what it's like in my family and the families I knew growing up. I wanted to portray arranged marriage as it's more
commonly found in middle-class India."
Menon grew up in India and came to America at age 15. While her marriage wasn't arranged, she says, "Pretty much
all of my relatives' were, so it's pretty normal for me to think about it."
In Dimple and Rishi's case, the two have more in common than they realize: Just as Dimple always feels like she's not
good enough for her parents, Rishi feels distant from his own. His dad urges him toward a practical business education,
despite Rishi's love for drawing comics.
However, Rishi is more in tune with his parents when it comes to marriage: He trusts them and believes in the
importance of tradition. Of course, because he's male, he hasn't experienced a lifetime of being told to wear more
makeup and to stop caring about school so he can focus on becoming marriage material.
Menon notes that in Indian culture, especially for daughters, it can be "hard to see past your mother constantly telling
you how you should be, how things should be, what you should change. It's hard to see that as coming from a place of
love, or that it's the only way they know how to communicate [that] they want you to end up in a good place in life."
For Menon, this divide was a crucial addition to the story. "It's a very universal experience for anyone with a
controlling parent," she says. "In the end, Dimple's mom was really proud of her and wanted what was best for her,
even if that was communicated in a convoluted way."
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As in any good rom-com, time passes and the two get to know each other, allowing perspectives to shift and defenses
to weaken. Dimple realizes that Rishi is a good, talented person who stands up for her when it matters. (It doesn't hurt
that he's handsome, too.) And Rishi acknowledges that fierce, lovely Dimple has been experiencing arranged-marriage
pressure in a very different, demoralizing way--and that perhaps it's OK to pursue something he's passionate about.
Menon's own experience of feeling torn between Indian traditions and American social mores is one of the main
reasons why she loved writing this book. "I know what it's like to grapple with the question, how much Indian am I?"
She explains that it got easier in college. "People came to assume I'd been born here ... and I started to find my place a
bit more. I started writing more and expressing myself through art. It was a really freeing thing for me to do--to feel
like there's this thing I can share with people, and they can accept that, even if they can't accept every part of me just
yet."
When asked if she's more like practical Dimple or romantic Rishi, Menon laughs and denies being a romantic. "I love
to write [romance] and read it and watch it in Bollywood movies, but in my personal life I'm much more practical," she
says.
"I do think there's a kind of magic to love. My super-logical brain says it's all chemistry ... but there is a magic to true
love and finding the perfect person. Even if your parents preordain it--that still helps you find love."
INTER VIEW BY LINDA M. CASTELLITTO
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Castellitto, Linda M. "When first love collides with tradition." BookPage, June 2017, p. 29. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA492899157&it=r&asid=581507c19d382ad28bc4f8c3a705a271.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A492899157
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Menon, Sandhya. When Dimple Met Rishi
Matthew Weaver
Voice of Youth Advocates.
40.2 (June 2017): p69.
COPYRIGHT 2017 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
5Q * 5P * J * S (a)
Menon, Sandhya. When Dimple Met Rishi. Simon Pulse, 2017. 384p. $17.99. 978-14814-7868-7.
Dimple Shah is so excited to attend the summer web development conference Insomnia Con that she is not even
suspicious when her parents are equally keen for her to go. When Rishi Patel walks up to her and jokingly says, "Hello,
future wife," the only thing Dimple can do is dump her iced coffee on him. It turns out that both Dimple and Rishi's
parents have been hoping love would spark between the two teens for a long time. After their "meet cute" gone awry,
they begrudgingly get to know each other, even though both are focused on their own futures. The more they hang out,
the less romance seems like a bad idea ...
Menon weaves a vibrant, joyous, funny love story between two smart, strong, sexy, funny, wonderful people who
happen to be first-generation Indian American. Dimple and Rishi resist, but it is clear, virtually from the start, that this
is a perfect match. They are purely equals, and each bolsters the other. Menon does not fall into any stereotypical traps-
-no lame, interfering third parties, no stupid misunderstandings. Conflicts arise naturally; Dimple and Rishi are
perfectly able to think through them and come up with solutions, on their own and as a team. Some readers may dislike
that Dimple and Rishi decide to have sex (with special emphasis on the word "decide") but it is handled beautifully and
movingly. Menon is firmly in Jane Austen territory here and proves superbly adept at handling her characters'--and
readers'--hearts.--Matthew Weaver.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Weaver, Matthew. "Menon, Sandhya. When Dimple Met Rishi." Voice of Youth Advocates, June 2017, p. 69. General
OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA497860340&it=r&asid=b1add1afe21a140136b8896854cefcf6.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
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When Dimple Met Rishi
Rebecca Kuss
Booklist.
113.15 (Apr. 1, 2017): p74.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
When Dimple Met Rishi.
By Sandhya Menon.
May 2017. 384p. Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse, $17.99 (9781481478687). Gr. 9-12.
It's not always as easy as boy meets girl. In the case of Rishi Patel and Dimple Shah, it's more like boy is arranged to
marry girl, and girl attacks boy with iced coffee. In her delightful debut, Menon tells the story of two Indian American
teenagers, fresh from high school and eager for adulthood. While Rishi's version of growing up involves happily
following his parents' life plan (giving up art for engineering and accepting an arranged marriage to Dimple), Dimple
sees college as her chance to escape her immigrant parents' stifling expectations (which include little more than
wearing makeup and finding a suitable Indian husband). And yet, when Dimple and Rishi finally meet, they are both
shocked to realize what it is they truly want--and what they're willing to sacrifice to get it. While Menons portrayal of
the struggles of Indian American teens is both nuanced and thoughtful, it is her ability to fuse a classic coming-of-age
love story with the contemporary world of nerd culture, cons, and coding camp, that will melt the hearts of readers.--
Rebecca Kuss
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Kuss, Rebecca. "When Dimple Met Rishi." Booklist, 1 Apr. 2017, p. 74. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA491488000&it=r&asid=a02efbfb7f53b5894e542ed2717f42e6.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491488000
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When Dimple Met Rishi
Publishers Weekly.
264.13 (Mar. 27, 2017): p102.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
When Dimple Met Rishi
Sandhya Menon. Simon Pulse, $17.99 (384p)
ISBN 978-1-4814-7868-7
In this bright and funny debut novel, Menon introduces two intellectually gifted teens from traditional Indian families
who meet at a summer tech conference in San Francisco. The twist: Dimple and Rishi's parents have arranged their
marriage. Rishi is aware of the arrangement; Dimple is not. Rishi longs for a traditional marriage like the one his
parents have, but Dimple is adamantly opposed to her parents' efforts to push her toward the same, favoring a career
and education over family. After a disastrous initial meeting (Dimple throws iced coffee at Rishi), the two creep toward
friendship and love, a slow process recounted through their alternating points of view (often switching multiple times
within a single chapter). This frequent back and forth provides a detailed play-by-play of the teenagers' shifting
emotions as Menon vividly conjures the joy, self-doubt, and humor of first love. Romance-loving readers will celebrate
the ways that Rishi and Dimple learn to respect and appreciate their Indian heritage and traditions but also manage to
go their own way. Ages 12-up. Agent: Thao Le, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"When Dimple Met Rishi." Publishers Weekly, 27 Mar. 2017, p. 102. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA487928221&it=r&asid=fb57c4af832fe4b770559bef36c45a7e.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A487928221
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Menon, Sandhya: WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Menon, Sandhya WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (Children's Fiction) $17.99 5, 30
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7868-7
A clash of perspectives sparks this romantic comedy about two first-generation Indian-American teens whose parents
set an arranged-marriage plan in motion, but it backfires big time--or maybe not? In the alternating voices of her two
protagonists, Menon explores themes of culture and identity with insight and warmth. Seamlessly integrating Hindi
language, she deftly captures the personalities of two seemingly opposite 18-year-olds from different parts of
California and also from very different places regarding life choices and expectations. Insomnia Con, a competitive
six-week summer program at San Francisco State focused on app development, is where this compelling, cinematic,
and sometimes-madcap narrative unfolds. Dimple Shah lives and breathes coding and has what she thinks is a winning
and potentially lifesaving concept. She chafes under her mother's preoccupation with the Ideal Indian Husband and
wants to be respected for her intellect and talent. Rishi Patel believes in destiny, tradition, and the "rich fabric of
history," arriving in San Francisco with his great-grandmother's ring in his pocket. He plans to study computer science
and engineering at MIT. But what about his passion for comic-book art? They are assigned to work together and sparks
fly, but Dimple holds back. Readers will be caught up as Rishi and Dimple navigate their ever changing, swoonworthy
connection, which plays out as the app competition and complicated social scene intensify. Heartwarming, empathetic,
and often hilarious--a delightful read. (Fiction. 14-adult)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Menon, Sandhya: WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2017. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485105067&it=r&asid=2411bffb34b92fa1673275e7f5f68e6e.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485105067
'When Dimple Met Rishi' is a zippy, charming update on arranged marriage
The Christian Science Monitor. (June 5, 2017): Arts and Entertainment:
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 The Christian Science Publishing Society
http://www.csmonitor.com/About/The-Monitor-difference
Listen
Full Text:
Byline: Katie Ward Beim-Esche

Two Indian-American teenagers walk into a San Francisco tech conference. Their parents have sent them here to gauge their chemistry for an arranged marriage. Only one of them knows that. The other doesn't know that the other doesn't know.

Sandhya Menon's When Dimple Met Rishi is just as charming, magnetic, and zippy as it sounds.

Rishi, the Patels' older son and poster child, is invested in the idea of arranged marriage. He does whatever it takes to uphold family tradition, planning an MIT engineering degree and a stable, predictable career at his father's Silicon Valley tech firm. Rishi forces himself to squelch his real passion, comic book art, to please his parents.

Dimple Shah, the Shahs' only child, is all business, all the time; marriage isn't even in the equation. She scoffs at her mother's relentless attempts to set her up with an I.I.H. (Ideal Indian Husband). Dimple's savvy and hustle have earned her a spot at Stanford University to study web development, so her career gets top billing at all times.

With her mom so focused on an M.R.S. degree over a B.S., it's an absolute miracle when Dimple's parents agree to send her to Insomnia Con, a summer web development program at San Francisco State University. Little does she know why they're suddenly so accommodating! So when Rishi spills the beans at their first meeting, Dimple is horrified and outraged.

Naturally, they're paired as partners for the entire conference. As they work together - Rishi obediently and Dimple furiously - a friendship blossoms. What blossoms next is entirely by surprise, and neither of them knows what to do with it.

Allow me to explain Dimple and Rishi's predicament in the context of 18th-century colonial geography.

You heard me.

In the mid- to late 1700s, the Eastern Seaboard of what is now the United States was still a layer cake of British colonies with a frothy French topping in present-day Canada. Britain had laid claim to half the North American continent. They had no idea what that land actually contained, of course, but darn it, they claimed it.

The trouble was figuring out how to delineate it across such a vast distance. Britain's solution was to extend their colonies' borders directly west. (Check out this Library of Congress map for a visual.) A colony was expected to keep expanding along those westerly parallels until it ran out of runway at the Mississippi River.

In hindsight, this was a ludicrous expectation. That territory was massive, and they had no idea what the terrain looked like. Those parallels couldn't account for undiscovered mountains, rivers, monuments, or obstacles.

Yet in the mind of an 18th-century cartographer, that was a reasonable expectation for how colony development was going to progress. The land would develop exactly according to plan, constrained in those perfectly defined channels.

At 17 and 18 years old, Dimple and Rishi are such cartographers, plotting out the course of a lifetime with just 15 percent of it completed. They have no way of knowing what the terrain looks like or how their course will veer, expand, and contract in response to it. Eighteen years of life experience seems so small in comparison to the exciting, dangerous, unexplored territory of adulthood that lies ahead.

Insomnia Con is therefore bewilderingly different topography that demands a whole new map. They're not prepared for this revelation. Their life plans do not accommodate this.

The borders of an emotional state can feel as inflexible, narrow, and unending as those of a geographic one. The deeper the turmoil or the bigger the wrench thrown into your plans, the stronger the feeling that your heart's terrible geography is the new normal, extending in this wretched channel, in just this way, to the end of your life.

Dimple and Rishi have drawn borders for themselves, only to find their heart's desire on the wrong side of the line. Dimple has consciously chosen to pursue her career before all else. Rishi has chosen tradition and obedience over doing what makes his soul sing.

Half-empty, half-full. Half-life, if that's what you must sacrifice to feel like you're doing what you should. But what's the fulcrum between practicality and passion? How do you know when to follow dreams instead of duty?

Will they keep true to those original maps or draw new ones? It's a well-engineered struggle.

There's so much to love about "When Dimple Met Rishi," and not just because I used to live and work near SFSU. Menon has a vibrant voice and a smooth touch, especially when integrating Hindi into dialogue. Plus, she got me watching Bollywood videos again, so that's a win.

I love passages in which a moment becomes a microcosm of the entire narrative. When Rishi and Dimple visit a comic book convention at SFSU, Rishi is taken aback by his powerful reaction.

He compares it to "trying to stay away from the girl you desperately loved but who you knew was bad for you. You kept your distance, because that was the only way to save yourself. You kept your distance, because you knew if you didn't, you'd be helplessly and hopelessly caught up in everything you loved about her. Distance was the promise of safety. Without distance, Rishi knew the inexorable love for his art, for creation, would suck him in and never let go."

Dimple responds, "Are you afraid that you don't belong here? Or that you do?"

That, dear reader, sums up the entire book in a nutshell. "When Dimple Met Rishi" is gorgeous work.

(One last thing: I rarely write about cover design, but I always analyze it, and this was a stunner on all fronts. My husband took one look and commented with a smile, "That's the most millennial cover I've ever seen." To his credit, it's true! Dimple's giant grin, chomping on the straw of an iced coffee, plus her plethora of rings and the hand-lettered title, all contribute to one very 21st century vibe. It's packed with verve and fizz. Regina Flath, I tip my hat to you!)

Castellitto, Linda M. "When first love collides with tradition." BookPage, June 2017, p. 29. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA492899157&it=r. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017. Weaver, Matthew. "Menon, Sandhya. When Dimple Met Rishi." Voice of Youth Advocates, June 2017, p. 69. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA497860340&it=r. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017. Kuss, Rebecca. "When Dimple Met Rishi." Booklist, 1 Apr. 2017, p. 74. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA491488000&it=r. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017. "When Dimple Met Rishi." Publishers Weekly, 27 Mar. 2017, p. 102. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA487928221&it=r. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017. "Menon, Sandhya: WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485105067&it=r. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017. "'When Dimple Met Rishi' is a zippy, charming update on arranged marriage." Christian Science Monitor, 5 June 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA494490346&it=r. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.

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