Authors: Sonali Dev

A Bollywood Affair (30 page)

She grabbed on to his shoulders and climbed up on his feet just as his lips found hers, the fit so perfect he forgot to think, forgot to breathe, and lost himself in stealing his life back from her lips. It raged back through him, everything he had ever lost. He plucked it from her lips, whispered it back into her mouth. When he finally pulled away he found her eyes glazed with the same ravenous need that raged through him and he had to remind himself where they were.

She didn’t seem to care. She reached up and gave him that look, the one that asked him to bend to her. And he did because he could never refuse her anything. She dug her fingers in his hair, wrapped him up in her fierce warmth, and spoke in his ear, her whisper trembling with emotion. “You’re everything, Samir. You’re everything I ever wanted. And I choose you. You are my love, my freedom, and I choose you.” She dragged her lips across his jaw and found his lips.

His world spun. He would have to get used to that. He pulled her body impossibly closer. Terror of ever having to let her go gripped his gut. “Screw freedom,” he said against her lips. “I’m not ever letting you go.”

Banging sounded from outside the elevator. “Hello? Anyone in there? Are you stuck? Hold on, we’ll get you out.”

He groaned and Mili threw her head back and laughed, her onyx eyes sparkling, her midnight curls cascading down her back, the smell of night-blooming jasmine flooding his senses. Oh yeah, he was well and truly stuck. And no fucking way was anyone getting him out. Ever.

EPILOGUE

A
single wedding altar stood on the sandy beach rimmed by a sun-drenched ocean that disappeared into the horizon. The celebratory lilt of
shehnai
flutes piped from speakers and mingled with the gentle crashing of the waves. An auspicious pyre dotted the center of the altar like a scarlet
bindi.
By the pyre sat a chanting priest and one bride and her one and only groom. A kurta of the sheerest silk stretched across his humungous shoulders. A vermillion sari edged with the most intricate gold wound around her delicately curvy body.

Around them in concentric circles of color gathered their friends and family, sipping wine and munching cocktail-sized samosas.

Lata surveyed the scene from the very front of the chaos, where her sons had obtained the plushest of sofas for her and the bride’s grandmother. Unlike the beaming grandmother, tears flowed in rivulets down the bride’s velvet cheeks. Her chest hiccupped with sobs. The bride’s brother-in-law dropped a kiss on his own wife’s head and went to the bride. He switched out the empty tissue box next to her with a new one and winked at his brother, who stared at his bride’s tears with almost absurd pride.

“Some things never change,” thought the groom’s brother.

“I still can’t believe those lashes are real,” thought the groom.

“Good Lord, he has the most beautiful shoulders in the world and I can’t wait to get my hands on him,” thought the bride.

“Please, God, let the poor fool get whatever she’s crying for this time,” thought the groom’s mother.

And she did.

A READING GROUP GUIDE

A BOLLYWOOD AFFAIR

Sonali Dev

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

The suggested questions are included
to enhance your group’s reading of
Sonali Dev’s
A Bollywood Affair.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1.
Mili believes she loves Virat without ever having seen him. But when she feels things for Samir, she is unable to categorize that as love. Although Mili’s situation is unique, do you believe conditioning by society influences whom we fall in love with? At a wider level does societal conditioning dictate our friendships and people we are drawn to?

2.
Samir is still reeling from abandonment as a child and yet he puts himself in a position where Mili abandoning him is almost inevitable. Do you think we tend to put ourselves in positions where our worst fears come true? And if we do, why do you think that is?

3.
Mili accepts her lot in life but she keeps working within the confines of her situation to change it. Have you ever been in a situation where you couldn’t change the source of the problem but you worked around the problem to keep going and make it bearable? And does that ever really work?

4.
Why do you think Samir never tells Mili who he is? Do you believe the reasons he gives himself—his script, her injury? Could he have told her sooner? What do you believe would have happened if he had?

5.
Why do you think Mili never tells Samir about her marriage? Does her lie by omission make Samir’s lie easier to forgive? Do you think that their relationship is based on lies or do you believe that the foundation of their relationship is outside of the lies?

6.
Naani makes decisions for Mili she believes will benefit Mili. Baiji does the same for Samir. Do you believe families, by virtue of loving us, have the right to “do what is best” for us? What about your own family—how far would you go for those you love?

7.
Why do you think the system of child marriages or even arranged marriages, for that matter, where the choice lies outside the marrying couple, ever started? What was the benefit to society? Apart from the obvious injustice of it, what other repercussions does a society suffer as a result of such a system?

8.
Culturally, does the Indian community in the story seem like an isolated island? Do you believe it is more important for immigrant communities to assimilate and integrate into mainstream American society, or is holding on to their roots important and beneficial? Why?

9.
Despite Mili and Samir being from India, their worlds are very different. One rural and traditional, the other urban and more Western. What do you think fundamentally attracts them to each other despite these differences? Do you believe a similarity in backgrounds/belief systems helps a marriage or is the opposite of that true?

10.
Mili and her roommate, Ridhi, have both been raised in traditional Indian families but in two different countries. Both families believe the women should follow the path set for them. Both women maneuver their way around these expectations to get what they want. Do you think the burden of a set path to follow is unique to the Indian culture? Or is it something all cultures have to deal with? What kind of expectations have you had to work around in your own life? Can we ever be empowered enough to make decisions free from expectations?

11.
Tradition and family values play a large part in the lives of all the major characters. How do you think traditions and family values help or hinder the characters? What is the place of tradition in today’s world?

Photo by Vernice Dollar of Studio 16

Sonali Dev’s first literary work was a play about mistaken identities performed at her neighborhood Diwali extravaganza in Mumbai. She was eight years old. Despite this early success, Sonali spent the next few decades getting degrees in architecture and written communication, migrating across the globe, and starting a family while writing for magazines and Web sites. With the advent of her first gray hair her love for telling stories returned full force, and she now combines it with her insights into Indian culture to conjure up stories that make a mad tangle with her life as supermom, domestic goddess, and world traveler. Sonali is an active member of RWA and WFWA. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her very patient and often amused husband, two teens who demand both patience and humor, and the world’s most perfect dog. Visit her on the Web at sonalidev.com.

KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

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eISBN-13: 978-1-61773-014-6

eISBN-10: 1-61773-014-9

First Kensington Electronic Edition: November 2014

ISBN: 978-1-6177-3013-9