New Beginnings
Welcome to my first official newsletter / Blog Post #3! I am so excited to introduce myself, my books, and my experiences in traditional publishing as a second-year medical student with you all :)
1. ICYMI: The Official Sanskari Sweetheart Cover Reveal!
You know how they say publishing is very very quiet until it very very much isn’t? That’s the story behind the Sanskari Sweetheart cover. I sold this book back in May 2021 with Kismat Connection, when it was just a seed of an idea, and now, well over 3 years later, I finally get to share this breathtaking cover with you all.
Thank you to Jani Balakumar for illustrating yet another beautiful cover in the Kismat Connection Cinematic Universe TM (lol) and to David DeWitt for creating a design that helped to make Raina and Aditya come to life.
If you’d like to show your support for me or for Sanskari Sweetheart, I’d very much appreciate your shelf adds, ratings, and reviews on Goodreads. And if you’re extra excited, you are always welcome to pre-order a copy as we approach our May 20, 2025 release date. Links can be found below!
Sanskari Sweetheart Overview:
Raina needs to win the National Bollywood Dance Circuit Scholarship. That will show her mother that dance can be a financially stable career and prove to her boyfriend and co-captain, Aditya, that they’re still the perfect couple, even if all they seem to do these days is fight. There’s only one problem—Aditya breaks up with her, their Nationals choreography crumbles on stage, and Raina, as well as her hopes of winning the scholarship, is taken right down with it.
All Raina wants is a do-over, so when she wakes up the next morning to a miracle—another chance at Nationals with Aditya by her side—she couldn’t be happier. But as the events of the day start repeating, Raina realizes she’s stuck in a time loop, cursed to humiliate herself at Nationals and then get dumped—over and over again.
Raina is certain that if she follows all the right steps, she can break out of the time loop, win Nationals, and earn back the heart of her one true love in the process.
But what if perfection isn’t enough?
2. Life After Kismat Connection
As some of you may already know, my debut young adult fiction novel, Kismat Connection, released on June 13, 2023. I’d written it in my final year of high school and first year of undergrad, and I found that Madhuri and Arjun’s story helped me sort through a lot of questions regarding my identity and culture, especially as I embarked on my own coming-of-age journey.
Kismat Connection was my everything, and I’ll be honest—it was hard to find a new story to love when the first was so deeply entrenched in my personhood. But, in sending Kismat Connection out into the world, I was lucky enough to receive the kindest messages and well-meaning feedback from my readers, and trust me, it really made a difference in the way I tackled my sophomore novel, Sanskari Sweetheart.
It’s been 1.5 years since Kismat Connection released, and I remember thinking back then that my legacy would be my age, and that the world would forever regard me as the girl who published her debut at 21. But when I wrote Sanskari Sweetheart, I was forced to shift my perspective away from being the youngest author in publishing, which was realistically no longer in the cards for me, to finding satisfaction in the craft itself—and wow, am I way better for it.
So, this is me saying thank you. From supporting my work as a plucky, debut author to offering me the chance to improve with each and every novel to come, please know that I wouldn’t be here, telling my stories for hours on end, without you.
3. Finding Balance and Looking Forward
In the ongoing theme of this newsletter, I am going to keep it real. Medical school is hard, and I definitely should’ve accounted for that when I decided to pursue my career in publishing at the same time. Alas, I am an optimist. Sue me.
That being said, I do love both fields. Medicine brings me a sense of fulfillment that I don’t think I’d find anywhere else, and writing is what keeps me human, even in the most difficult of times. I cannot imagine myself ever letting go of either, so I’ve decided that I simply won’t. I may not be the author that releases a brand new novel every year, and I may not be the surgeon who takes call every other weekend, but I am confident in my ability to find a place for myself somewhere in the middle.
So, TLDR, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.
Wish me luck, and see you all at the next newsletter!
