When Dimple Met Rishi

Menor, Sandhya. When Dimple Met Rishi. 2017. 380p. ISBN 978-1-48147868-7. Available at FIC MEN on the library shelves.

Dimple Shah is looking forward to the rest of her life, despite her mother’s best efforts at marrying her off to a good Indian man. A recent high school graduate, she’s heading to Stanford in the fall to study web design. Before then, however, she’s hoping to attend a six weeks programming competition. Money is tight in her household, so it will be a problem paying the tuition for this short program. If she wins, Dimple will get to meet her idol, a star app creator. Surprisingly, talking her parents into paying for her participation turns out to be a lot easier than she expected. Generally, her mother would always try to convince her she needs to find a husband and she therefore needs to look pretty, but not this time. This time, she agrees to let her daughter go. Happy, Dimple is ready to compete.

Rishi Patel is heading to the same summer program with one goal in mind. To meet his future wife, Dimple. The Shahs and the Patels, who met each other eight years ago have arranged for Rishi to marry Dimple. Rishi has seen Dimple only in photos, but he already knows she’s the one for him. His parents couldn’t be wrong, could they? Rishi looks forward to courting Dimple and lavishing her with attention. He’s fine with an arranged marriage, because provides stability, honors an Indian tradition, and makes things easy for him. Only, when he first meets her and greets her with “Hello, my future wife,” she throws coffee in his face and wants nothing to do with it. Dimple, as it turns out, did not know her parents were setting her up with Rishi, and she wants him gone from this competition, especially since he’s not really into app design.

Unfortunately, it’s too late. Rishi requested Dimple as his partner, and since she did not express a preference they are now paired together, and they have to work as a team to complete an app. With Rishi being a hopeless romantic, and Dimple a complete cynic who’s mad at her parents for even trying to set this up, will the two of them be able to successfully compete this summer?