Saturday 31 May 2014

#TourSchedule :: That Autumn in Awadh by Rachna Singh

8:29 am 0 Comments
Young, impetuous and drawn to each other like gnats to resin, Samar Solanki and Sara Shergill try, furiously, to avoid falling in love, but, slowly succumb. All hell breaks loose as Samar’s conservative Rajput family swears vendetta, locking Samar away, on the eve of their clandestinely-planned wedding. They vow to eliminate Sara, the audacious girl who has dreamt of sullying their pedigreed lineage, from Samar’s life. Through that lonely autumn in Awadh, bereft of hope, fettered and helpless, the star-crossed lovers cling to the faith they have in each other, as they brave many storms together. This novel about love is peppered, generously, with the author’s characteristic droll wit as it traipses through sensational turns of events that keep you absorbed till the very end.





A Volcano: Vivid, Violent and Valliant

‘That Autumn in Awadh’ is like a volcano – two tectonic plates in conflict with each other,  a molten lava chamber that seethes and smoulders within…the eruption is destructive, but in some strange way, so spellbinding, entrancing. It’s a love story with the pace of a thriller and the humour of a comedy.
For me, writing is not just a creative outlet. It has to be more than that. I have been in the corporate world for almost two decades and it’s been drilled into me that that the customer is paramount. I write from my reader’s perspective. I want every line to grip the reader’s imagination.
I write in my comfort zone : relationships and humour. In this novel too, there is dark humour as well as frothy workplace humour.
My characters are well-etched, defined, balanced and easy to identify with. When I am building a character, I am, constantly, exploring those illogical, contradictory, good and evil dimensions that create a real human being.
For me, it is just not enough for the reader to ‘feel with the story’ – I aim for his or her appetite to be nudged so, that they demand for more.
The response to the book is tremendous, and I am happy I could make my readers happy.
‘It’s droll, it’s witty. The author handled the tension well. I never knew that a theme like that of honour killing could be dealt with humour.’ – A review.


About the Author:
Rachna Singh writes in the areas of humour, love, and organizational development. She believes in living in the moment, cherishing life as it comes, and reaping the most of every moment.
Born and schooled in Allahabad, Rachna studied at St. Mary’s Convent and, subsequently, at the University of Allahabad. She inherits her wicked humor from her father, Ajit Thakurdas, and her love for writing from her mother, Kamalini Thakurdas, who writes in poetry and prose in Hindi.
Rachna has worked in the area of Learning and Organizational Development for almost two decades. She has worked at Tata Motors, Infosys, Spice Telecom and Dell.
Married to Alok, alumni, IT-BHU(Meta, ’93), and IIM-Lucknow(’98), Rachna has two children, Aisha and Prithviraj.

The author plans to continue writing, across genres, giving her readers something new to relish, each time.

Contact:
Website I Blog I Facebook I Twitter I Goodreads

Buy Links:
Amazon I Flipkart I HomeShop18



Tour Schedule

Friday 30 May 2014

#TourSchedule :: Whole Latte Love by Rachelle Ayala

1:02 am 0 Comments
Investment banking intern Carina Chen doesn’t need any distractions - especially the sexy, guitar-playing barista she rooms with for the summer.
Free spirit Dylan Jewell appreciates the delightful universe of women who vie for his attention. His goal in life is to do good, make happy coffee, and help the homeless.
When Carina moves in, she insists on rules of conduct to quell her instant attraction to Dylan. But when her boss asks her to turn Dylan into a businessman, she can’t think of a reason not to take advantage of his hospitality.
Their chemistry is white hot, but Dylan refuses to play Carina’s game, unable to understand how he can fall in love with a woman who puts profits in front of people. When Carina realizes Dylan isn’t budging, she risks all to gain a single night with him. Will her gambit backfire or will Dylan discover Carina’s true heart before she runs away with his?
Set in Berkeley, California, Whole Latte Love is an opposites-attract romance mixing bluesy rock music, hot, steamy love scenes, and financial shenanigans.


Buy Links:
Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | IN | JP | AU | BR | MX | CA 

About the Author
Rachelle Ayala is the author of dramatic fiction crossing genres and boundaries featuring strong but flawed characters. She writes emotionally challenging stories and is not afraid of controversial topics. However, she is an optimist and laces her stories with romance and hope.
Rachelle is an active member of online critique group, Critique Circle, an active member of the California Writer’s Club, Fremont Chapter, and a volunteer for the World Literary Cafe. She is a very happy woman and lives in California with her husband. She has three children and has taught violin and made mountain dulcimers.

Subscribe to mailing list for upcoming books and giveaways. http://eepurl.com/lR5kv

Connect with the Author:
Website I Blog I Facebook Twitter I Goodreads



Tour Schedule:

9th June:
Margaret: Promo Post - Excerpt
Sanchit Bhandari: Promo Post - Teaser Pics
Samarpita Sharma: Book Review

10th June:
Laura Greenwood: Book Review
TB Markinson: Promo Post - Excerpt
Jessica Assidy: Promo Post - Teaser Pics

11th June:
Deea: Promo Post - Excerpt
DDS: Book Review
Vishal : Book Review

12th June:
Namrata: Book Review
Sheila Deeth: Promo Post - Excerpt
Sofia Lazaridou: Promo Post - Teaser Pics

13th June:
Kumiko Lei: Book Review
Jacquel Chrissy May: Promo Post - Excerpt
Becky: Promo Post - Teaser Pics

14th June:
DJ Sakata : Book Review
Elizabeth McKenna: Promo Post - Excerpt
Marilou George: Promo Post - Teaser Pics
Colleen Cook: Promo Post - Teaser Pics

16th June:
Shree Janani & Dhivya Balaji: Book Review
Annamaria: Promo Post - Excerpt
Tanya: Promo Post - Teaser Pics

17th June:
Cheshire: Book Review
Nishita Kumar: Promo Post - Excerpt
Autumn: Promo Post - Excerpt

18th June:
Paula: Book Review
Christina Livingston: Promo Post - Teaser Pics
Dawn Heslin: Promo Post - Excerpt

19th June
Ruth Hill: Book Review
Dee: Promo Post - Teaser Pics
Vicky: Promo Post - Excerpt

20th June:
Maniparna Sengupta Majumder: Book Review
Rae Quigley: Promo Post - Excerpt
Lori: Promo Post - Teaser Pics

21st June:
Melissa: Book Review
Jessica Webb: Book Review
Cinta Garcia de la Rosa: Promo Post - Teaser Pics
Cathy LaPeters: Promo Post - Excerpt
Kay: Promo Post - Teaser Pics 


Monday 26 May 2014

#TourKickoff :: Starcursed by Nandini Bajpai

1:34 pm 0 Comments
In the ancient city of Ujjayani, the planets align to decide the fate of two starcursed lovers. Born under the curse of Mars, brilliant and beautiful Leelavati, daughter of the famed astronomer Bhaskarya Acharya of Ujjayani, knows she can never wed. But when her childhood playmate, the handsome and rich Rahul Nagarseth, returns from sea, their attraction is rekindled under stormy monsoon skies. As Leela, forced by fate to relinquish Rahul, tries to find solace in teaching at her fathers observatory, a fleeting alignment of the stars is discovered that can help overcome her curse. But Rahul is called away on a war to defend his kingdom. Can he return in time or will she lose him forever to the will of the planets?

Set in turbulent twelfth century India, against the backdrop of the savage wars waged by Muhammad of Ghor and his band of Turkis, Starcursed is a sweeping tale of science, romance and adventure that will transport its readers to another world.


An Excerpt:

I didn’t stop running until I reached the lotus tank. The temple shone in the distance, its lights shimmering on the mirror of the water, music and laughter wafting from its crowded halls with every gust of wind. 
The lamp tower soared above me, quiet, inviting, deserted. I pushed open its heavy door and started to climb.
High up in the tower the sounds from the temple faded, leaving only the echo of my footsteps, and the tinkling of my silver anklets as I climbed. The steep, curved staircase could be treacherous in the dark, but tonight every niche in the tower was lit up in honour of the festival. I pushed the door open at the top and walked to the railing. There was someone there.
The clear night sky ablaze with stars framed his lithe form. His face looked serious in the glow of a single flickering lamp. I could see that the tender light of the other day still shone in his eyes—Rahul.
He’d been waiting. 

Buy Links:

About The Author:

Nandini Bajpai grew up in New Delhi, India, one of four sisters and many cousins, in a family that liked to read. Although she dabbled in corporate finance, business analysis, and fostering shelter animals, her first love is writing. Her novel Red Turban White Horse: My Sister's Hurricane Wedding was published in 2013 by Scholastic India.  She lives in the Boston area with her husband, kids, their dog Yogi and cat Rakhan.

Blog I Facebook I Twitter I Pinterest I Goodreads




Tour Schedule

26th May
A'ishah @ Inksugar

27th May
Nicole Hewitt Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Victoria Deal Sharing Aunt

28th May
Stephanie @ 100 Pages a Day
Namrata @ Redpillows
Nimue @ A Lot of Pages

29th May
Maniparna @ Scattered Thoughts

30th May

Thursday 22 May 2014

#TourAnnouncement :: That Autumn In Awadh by Rachna Singh

2:39 pm 0 Comments
Young, impetuous and drawn to each other like gnats to resin, Samar Solanki and Sara Shergill try, furiously, to avoid falling in love, but, slowly succumb. All hell breaks loose as Samar’s conservative Rajput family swears vendetta, locking Samar away, on the eve of their clandestinely-planned wedding. They vow to eliminate Sara, the audacious girl who has dreamt of sullying their pedigreed lineage, from Samar’s life. Through that lonely autumn in Awadh, bereft of hope, fettered and helpless, the star-crossed lovers cling to the faith they have in each other, as they brave many storms together. This novel about love is peppered, generously, with the author’s characteristic droll wit as it traipses through sensational turns of events that keep you absorbed till the very end.





An Excerpt
 The breeze blew kisses from the window, like little flower-girls, dressed in foamy white flounces.  It ushered her in by showering pale pink flowers that it blew in from the tree-lined Chinhat-Deva road that it sped along.  Her bridesmaids were those beautiful memories trailing her: those tender moments spent with Samar, and the promise of a future full of love. They were holding her up, as she sat in the bus, reminiscing about the day she had first met Samar. They made sure that the bride was poised and, at ease. And, the magnificent bridal march was that sublime intonation of Samar voice, which told her, over and over again,
‘We will make it happen, darling.’
Samar was now, in the tempo, with his baraatis, Jams and Soni, one of whom was perched on the rail. With every bump, Samar worried if Soni would tip overboard and he’d be one witness short! He yelled, above the music,
‘Abe, be careful. Don’t fall off!’
The tempo was quite the bridegroom’s chariot, with its bright red and yellow plastic flowers, a poster of chest-baring Salman Khan, and row of mirrors. A string of sequinned gold trimming was sewn around the edge of the funky orange upholstery, making it look like a throne. Not just the look, the feel was celebratory, too: it was reverberating with loud, filmy music,
‘Pyar karne waale pyar karte hain shaan se.. .’
Mama ji waited for the couple to arrive at the appointed place, the Chandan Juice Centre. He leaned against the stack of sugarcanes, scratching his initials on one of them. Like any self-asserting Indian, he liked to leave his mark wherever he went. The twelve-year-something waiter came to him, asking him if he’d like a glass of juice. Mama ji shooed him away, yelling at him, trying to swat him with a swish of his black coat that was hung across his forearm.
Samar and the boys had reached. They spotted mama ji cleaning his ear with his scooter-keys, and waved to him.
‘Namaste, mama ji.’
‘Namaste, Namaste, Is Sara here?’
‘She will come here directly. She should be here any moment.’
‘I thought you were coming together.’
‘No...’
‘Achcha, have you got your id proof?’
‘Yes, mama ji.’
Sara was on the last leg of her journey to the court, on a rickshaw.
‘Bhaiyya, Chandan Juice Center. Dekhte rahiye, baayeen taraf.’
The rickshaw puller careened dangerously, trying to avoid an open manhole. Sara clutched the back of her seat, looking around for the juice centre. It was a crowded street, dotted with chai-shops, photo-copying shops, and a huddle of typists with a table and chair each, as their establishments.
‘Sara...’ Samar called out, seeing her approach, his heart warming up to see his bride-to-be.
He helped her off the rickshaw, and paid him.
‘Am I late?’
‘No, no.’
The group hurried into the court. The byzantine corridors wove their way towards clusters of small, dingy rooms designated for various matters of the court. Electricity supply must have been scarce and erratic going by how drab and dour the rooms looked. Stacks of dust-collecting files reeked of squalid disdain for timely justice, supported by a stench of urine mixing with that of masticated tobacco that hung around the rooms.
Sara and Samar were nervous. Those men in rumpled black coats did not look very friendly. Mama ji signalled that they wait outside. He went in and discussed something with a man seated there. The man shot curious glances at them, as he spoke. They remained rooted there, dutifully, trying to look nonchalant, despite their churning innards.
‘Come, come..,’ mama ji came out holding some papers.
They trooped in, looking like school-children summoned to the Principal’s office. Sara was, already, preparing apologies in her head: she wanted to be prepared if it came to that. Samar stood as far from Sara, as possible, observing the Awadhi norms of propriety. In this effort, he had broken all norms of preserving personal space with mama ji.
The proceedings were short and lacklustre, with few sharp questions, during which the civil magistrate looked at them suspiciously, from above his glasses. Thankfully, he did not ask any unpleasant questions like why they chose to marry like this. He just stuck to his job, made a few notes and then asked them to come back after an hour to sign on the certificate.
Samar and Sara exchanged a glance: a smile and a ‘I-still-don’t believe-it-yet’ look. 
‘So are you married now?’ Jams whispered.

About the Author:
Rachna Singh writes in the areas of humour, love, and organizational development. She believes in living in the moment, cherishing life as it comes, and reaping the most of every moment.
Born and schooled in Allahabad, Rachna studied at St. Mary’s Convent and, subsequently, at the University of Allahabad. She inherits her wicked humor from her father, Ajit Thakurdas, and her love for writing from her mother, Kamalini Thakurdas, who writes in poetry and prose in Hindi.
Rachna has worked in the area of Learning and Organizational Development for almost two decades. She has worked at Tata Motors, Infosys, Spice Telecom and Dell.
Married to Alok, alumni, IT-BHU(Meta, ’93), and IIM-Lucknow(’98), Rachna has two children, Aisha and Prithviraj.

The author plans to continue writing, across genres, giving her readers something new to relish, each time.

Contact:
Website I Blog I Facebook I Twitter I Goodreads

Buy Links:
Amazon I Flipkart I HomeShop18



Monday 19 May 2014

#TourKickOff :: Metamorphing by Kunal Pancholi

3:17 pm 0 Comments



About the Book

28THAPRIL, 2000: Flight No. 9x4876 bound to Srinagar has crash landed into the Everest Base camp. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the flight mysteriously went off the radar for few minutes and missed its landing. All passengers are feared dead… except for three bodies that are yet to be recovered.
8THDECEMBER, 2050:This, without doubt is the most gruesome murder in recent times. Early this morning, an unidentified woman was found mutilated at the western gates of the abandoned Victoria Terminus Station in Mumbai. Authorities report her head was … well … semi-decapitated and she was drained of all her blood. The shocking part - the crime scene was devoid of any signs of blood spatter…
ROHAN: He was shorter than the shortest girl in school; he had to be ahead in the game!
RUDRA:A man without a past, coaxed into a murder investigation; will he ever grasp the true nature of the crime?
A thrilling tale about two men bound by an untraceable yet undeniable fate - One running away from his past, another unaware of his own.




The Book Trailer



Lesser Known Facts About the Book:
- There is a very strong / intense story of love that is present throughout the book.
- 'Metamorphing' as such is not a real word, rather not a word that is used in the sense that it is supposed to mean (Metamorphosing). I had to spell it out to all publishers while making my submission for the book that I am aware of this fact and I was only playing with words. Was worried that I could get rejected at the mention / sight of the name of the book itself!
- A sneak peek into the college life of a student of Criminology - Learning the ropes of detection, deduction and crime scene investigation.
- There is a Vampire in the book!
- As of now its a trilogy with two parts.
- At one point in time, one part of the book was supposed to be based in the 1900s.

 

Author’s Profile


Kunal Pancholi graduated from SRCC Delhi in 2001. He completed his MBA from NMIMS Mumbai in 2006. Previously, in his professional career he has worked with banks, co-founded READO - an audio book publishing company and done a marketing stint with a film production company in Mumbai. Currently he heads Sales & Marketing at a technology start-up. He lives in Chennai with his wife, parents, sister and grand-mom.




Interact with him
Twitter I Facebook Page I Website 



Thursday 15 May 2014

#TourSchedule :: Metamorphing by Kunal Pancholi

4:22 pm 0 Comments



Title – METAMORPHING
Author – Kunal Pancholi (www.kunalpancholi.com)
Publisher – Leadstart (www.leadstartcorp.com)







About the Book
28THAPRIL, 2000: Flight No. 9x4876 bound to Srinagar has crash landed into the Everest Base camp. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the flight mysteriously went off the radar for few minutes and missed its landing. All passengers are feared dead… except for three bodies that are yet to be recovered.
8THDECEMBER, 2050:This, without doubt is the most gruesome murder in recent times. Early this morning, an unidentified woman was found mutilated at the western gates of the abandoned Victoria Terminus Station in Mumbai. Authorities report her head was … well … semi-decapitated and she was drained of all her blood. The shocking part - the crime scene was devoid of any signs of blood spatter…
ROHAN: He was shorter than the shortest girl in school; he had to be ahead in the game!
RUDRA:A man without a past, coaxed into a murder investigation; will he ever grasp the true nature of the crime?
A thrilling tale about two men bound by an untraceable yet undeniable fate - One running away from his past, another unaware of his own.


Author’s Profile


Kunal Pancholi graduated from SRCC Delhi in 2001. He completed his MBA from NMIMS Mumbai in 2006. Previously, in his professional career he has worked with banks, co-founded READO - an audio book publishing company and done a marketing stint with a film production company in Mumbai. Currently he heads Sales & Marketing at a technology start-up. He lives in Chennai with his wife, parents, sister and grand-mom.




Interact with him
Twitter I Facebook Page I Website 


Tour Schedule

19th May
Alicia @ Addicted Readers
Aniesha @ Aniesha's Musings
Dawn @ Bound 2 Escape
Deea @ Carti Cu Colti
Iamoread @ Eyies Read Book Blog
Kay LaLone @ I Love Books
Knitha urs @ Fashionoire
Namrata @ Redpillows
Serenity @ Lovely Reads
Sudeshna @ Proses, Verses and Conversations

20th May
Aparna @ Doodles, Doodles Everywhere
Autumn @ Fallen Over Book Reeviews
Cremona @ Mythical Books
Jenn @ Book Reviews & Giveaways
Laura @ Colorimetry
Laura @ F U Only Knew
Maniparna @ Scattered Thoughts
Megan @ Books A to Z
Natasha @ Nat's Book Nook
Nikita @ NjKinny's World of Books & Stuff
Srilakshmi @ I am S(t)ri
Tegan @ T and a Book

21st May
Annamaria @ Annamaria's Writing Corner
Dhivya @ Reader's Muse
Drako @ Drako's Den
Julie @ Hooked on Books
Lori @ The Book Junkie
Martha @ Martha Emms Cognitive Dreamer
Melissa @ Book are Love
Paula @ The Phantom Paragrapher
Rachelle @ Rachelle's Window
Rae @ Drunk on Pop
Sherry @ Fundimental
Tanya @ Tanya's Book Nook
Victoria @ Deal Sharing Aunt

Sunday 11 May 2014

#TourAnnouncement :: Whole Latte Love by Rachelle Ayala

11:05 pm 0 Comments
Investment banking intern Carina Chen doesn’t need any distractions - especially the sexy, guitar-playing barista she rooms with for the summer.
Free spirit Dylan Jewell appreciates the delightful universe of women who vie for his attention. His goal in life is to do good, make happy coffee, and help the homeless.
When Carina moves in, she insists on rules of conduct to quell her instant attraction to Dylan. But when her boss asks her to turn Dylan into a businessman, she can’t think of a reason not to take advantage of his hospitality.
Their chemistry is white hot, but Dylan refuses to play Carina’s game, unable to understand how he can fall in love with a woman who puts profits in front of people. When Carina realizes Dylan isn’t budging, she risks all to gain a single night with him. Will her gambit backfire or will Dylan discover Carina’s true heart before she runs away with his?
Set in Berkeley, California, Whole Latte Love is an opposites-attract romance mixing bluesy rock music, hot, steamy love scenes, and financial shenanigans.


Buy Links:
Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | IN | JP | AU | BR | MX | CA 

About the Author
Rachelle Ayala was a software engineer until she discovered storytelling works better in fiction than real code. She enjoys writing love stories and has always lived in a multi-cultural environment. The tapestry of characters in her books reflect that diversity. She is an active member of online critique group, Critique Circle, and a volunteer for the World Literary Cafe.
Check out her four romantic novels. Michal’s Window is a powerful, emotional journey as lived through the eyes of Princess Michal, King David’s first wife. Broken Build is a story of healing where a man learns to love and trust the woman who destroyed his life. Hidden Under Her Heart is a heartfelt love story combined with controversy over difficult decisions, and Knowing Vera is a suspenseful, cross-cultural romance mixing an unsolved murder, adventure, and hot, steamy love scenes.

Connect with the Author:
Website I Blog I Facebook Twitter I Goodreads


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Wednesday 7 May 2014

#GuestPost :: Girls, Math, and History by Nandini Bajpai

10:05 am 1 Comments
In the ancient city of Ujjayani, the planets align to decide the fate of two starcursed lovers. Born under the curse of Mars, brilliant and beautiful Leelavati, daughter of the famed astronomer Bhaskarya Acharya of Ujjayani, knows she can never wed. But when her childhood playmate, the handsome and rich Rahul Nagarseth, returns from sea, their attraction is rekindled under stormy monsoon skies. As Leela, forced by fate to relinquish Rahul, tries to find solace in teaching at her fathers observatory, a fleeting alignment of the stars is discovered that can help overcome her curse. But Rahul is called away on a war to defend his kingdom. Can he return in time or will she lose him forever to the will of the planets?

Set in turbulent twelfth century India, against the backdrop of the savage wars waged by Muhammad of Ghor and his band of Turkis, Starcursed is a sweeping tale of science, romance and adventure that will transport its readers to another world.


Guest Post by Author Nandini Bajpai

Girls, Math, and History

Thanks for having me on your blog, Debdatta. And thanks also for hosting a review tour for Starcursed!

In my novel Starcursed the main character's name is Leelavati. I have a really strong emotional connection to that name because my grandmother’s name was also Leelavati and I've always loved it.

The incident that inspired me to write the book also has to do with this name. It started with a trip to the Museum of Science in Boston. I live in the Boston area and we take our kids to the Museum of Science quite often because it’s a nice Museum (in spite of what I’m about to say next, it IS a nice museum!)


So they have a really massive Mathematica display which shows the history of mathematics. It takes up a whole wall and one of the entries they have is about an Indian mathematician called Bhaskaracharya. This is what it says:

A page from Bhaskara’s Lilavati
Bhaskara is remembered for transmitting the rudimentary algebra of his predecessors Aryabhatta (the first) and Brahmagupta. His book Lilavati, the beautiful, looks askance at negative numbers but does say the square of a negative is positive. Bhaskara’s one word proof of the Pythagoras theorem was known to the ancient Chinese though his clever way of generating solutions to the Pell Equation – rediscovered by Euler -  seems to have been his own.

This is a pretty dismissive write up about a mathematician who deserves much more credit, but this display was probably made in the 1960s, when people were still in denial that the number system was even Indian, so I was like okaaay.  

What really caught my attention though was the name of the book! 

As I said earlier, this was my grandmother’s name, despite the different spelling, so just think how it read to me. It might help to imagine reading the same text with her name replaced by a name we can all immediately recognize as a woman’s name.

For example, Caroline. It would then read (please imagine a professorial tone here!) thusly:

1114-1158 AD
A page from Bhaskara’s Caroline.

Bhaskara is remembered for transmitting the rudimentary blah blah of his predecessors blah. His book Caroline, the beautiful, looks askance at negative numbers but does say that the square of a negative number is…etc.

Doesn’t that immediately make you stop and wonder who Caroline was and why on Earth he’d call his book on math Caroline?

Or try Susan. (Again, the professorial tone.)

1114-1158 AD
A page from Bhaskara’s Susan.

Bhaskara is remembered for transmitting the rudimentary blah. His book Susan, the beautiful, looks askance at negative numbers…etc.

I mean, you have to be completely without curiosity or imagination not to wonder who this woman was, right? But apparently no one who made the Mathematica display wondered about it. And by the way I should mention that this entire Mathematica display did not have one single woman in it. Not even Ada Lovelace and definitely not Hypatia.

Since I am neither without curiosity nor imagination, whatever my other faults, I did wonder about it. I looked it up and here’s what I found.

The book Bhaskara wrote was very popular. It was the standard math book in India for ages, and it has math questions in it that are directly addressed to a girl, sometimes called Leelavati. There’s also a story,  in a Persian translation, about Leelavati being Bhaskara’s daughter. It tells an amazing tale (not to give too much away...) about a wedding, and a bad horoscope, and a water clock that gets blocked by a jewel dropped by Leela herself. In other words, lots of material for a brilliant story. 

Someone should write about that, I thought. Someone should really, really write about that! And I kept on thinking that for years until one day (just like the quote from Lily Tomlin!) I realized that I am someone.


Being a fiction writer and not a mathematician or historian I did not write a math research paper or a non-fiction history book, I wrote a novel.

It's taken some time and effort (gross understatement alert!) to find a publisher for this book since the usual reaction, I imagine, is something like: You've written a story about WHAT? Girls, Math, and History?! But for every good story there's a great editor who believes in it, and I was lucky enough to (eventually) find Sudeshna at Rupa Publications. So, happy ending!

One final word to readers who may have read my YA novel Red Turban White Horse. I know that Leela’s voice is very different from Mini’s voice in RTWH. That’s because Mini lives in the 21st century in Massachusetts and is into fashion, and Leela lived in the 12th century in Ujjain and was into math!!  But they are both smart, confident, capable girls on the threshold of their lives and I really enjoyed being in both their heads—I hope you do too. 

And also—this is important—there's Rahul! :)

Buy Links:

About The Author:

Nandini Bajpai grew up in New Delhi, India, one of four sisters and many cousins, in a family that liked to read. Although she dabbled in corporate finance, business analysis, and fostering shelter animals, her first love is writing. Her novel Red Turban White Horse: My Sister's Hurricane Wedding was published in 2013 by Scholastic India.  She lives in the Boston area with her husband, kids, their dog Yogi and cat Rakhan.

Blog I Facebook I Twitter I Pinterest I Goodreads




Tour Schedule

26th May
A'ishah @ Inksugar

27th May
Nicole Hewitt Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Victoria Deal Sharing Aunt

28th May
Stephanie @ 100 Pages a Day
Namrata @ Redpillows

29th May
Maniparna @ Scattered Thoughts

30th May

Friday 2 May 2014

#TourAnnouncement :: Metamorphing by Kunal Pancholi

12:30 am 2 Comments


Title – METAMORPHING
Author – Kunal Pancholi (www.kunalpancholi.com)
Publisher – Leadstart (www.leadstartcorp.com)







About the Book
28THAPRIL, 2000: Flight No. 9x4876 bound to Srinagar has crash landed into the Everest Base camp. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the flight mysteriously went off the radar for few minutes and missed its landing. All passengers are feared dead… except for three bodies that are yet to be recovered.
8THDECEMBER, 2050:This, without doubt is the most gruesome murder in recent times. Early this morning, an unidentified woman was found mutilated at the western gates of the abandoned Victoria Terminus Station in Mumbai. Authorities report her head was … well … semi-decapitated and she was drained of all her blood. The shocking part - the crime scene was devoid of any signs of blood spatter…
ROHAN: He was shorter than the shortest girl in school; he had to be ahead in the game!
RUDRA:A man without a past, coaxed into a murder investigation; will he ever grasp the true nature of the crime?
A thrilling tale about two men bound by an untraceable yet undeniable fate - One running away from his past, another unaware of his own.


Author’s Profile


Kunal Pancholi graduated from SRCC Delhi in 2001. He completed his MBA from NMIMS Mumbai in 2006. Previously, in his professional career he has worked with banks, co-founded READO - an audio book publishing company and done a marketing stint with a film production company in Mumbai. Currently he heads Sales & Marketing at a technology start-up. He lives in Chennai with his wife, parents, sister and grand-mom.




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