When Dimple Met Rishi- By Sandhya Menon


Book Review :- When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Book Name :- When Dimple Met Rishi
Author : -Sandhya Menon
Publisher :- Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

No.of Pages :- 380
ISBN :- 978 1 473 66740 2
Genre :- Young Adult/Fiction/Love Story
Courtesy :- Flipkart Review Programme.

There are phases in your life, where one picks up different types of books. When you are 5, picture books fulfill that need. When you are in that curious age of 7 to 11, you want to read everything in sight, so you pick up champak, chandamama, Chacha Chaudhry, huckleberry finn, treasure island and the likes. When you are 11 to 15 & God bless you, if you are still reading, then you are probably reading Nancy Drew, Hardy boys, Famous Five, All the books by Enid Blyton, random medical thriller by Robin Cook & I also had a chance to read a Harold Robbins Book : ) When you are out of school finally, college, when at first sight you fall for someone so badly, it hits you like a thunderbolt, you start reading M & Bs, Books by Agatha Christie, Stephen King and oh so many. And so the cycle goes on, till the very end, if you like to read.

But no book, has an definite age segment. So whilst where i considered myself as a pretentious Book Reader and connoseiur of books, i came across this book through Flipkart Review Programme. I thought this will be a welcome change in my loveless life.

This book, eventually falls into the category where you have just passed out from school and are ready to take on the world.

The books starts with a young, ambitious girl named Dimple Shah who is all set to go to Stanford & as every young teenager she is on logger heads with her parents, because they won't let her go to Insomnia Con, short term course for budding app developers.

Reluctantly Dimple's parents allow her to go. Only because, they have fixed up her a match with a young, bright boy Rishi Patel (secured admission in MIT) who is only attending Insomnia Con to win Dimple and make Dimple his life partner.

They meet in an unconventional way, which is straight out of a movie. Dimple of course dislikes him at first & then as they are paired together to make the app, they slowly get to know each other. Rishi plays this adorable person who genuinely loves her from the very start and believes its "kismet" that brought them together.

The story progresses, while Dimple stresses on the fact that she is not looking for any long term relationship or commitment, she slowly starts to fall for him. Its the inbetween this, the innocent and yet sparkling chemistry between Rishi & Dimple that melts our hearts.

They both fall for each other really hard & the turnoil in their minds and hearts is beautifully narrated by Sandhya Menon. One can almost fill the tug of mental indecisiveness in Dimple.

Rishi is a guy, whom every girl would love to keep for herself. His way of looking at life, understanding and dedicating towards Dimple is endearing. Of course there are certain flaws in both the sketching of the characters, for eg why two bright candidates would think of love as a top priority when they have got admission in reputed institutes.

In the end, the couple journeys together through everything- date, dance competition, sacrifice, heart to heart talks. Forgive me if i sound cliched, Dimple & Rishi do make a cute couple.


As the story nears towards the end, it turns a bit dramatic and if i may add, the ending is definitely filmy. This novel is almost like a Yash Chopra or a Karan Johar movie.

As a novelist, i wish Sandhya Menon had done some research on Indian Immigrant families staying in US, teenagers and their life of course.

The writing is lucid & the narration at times falters a bit. At one point of time in the book, there is a scene which is straight from the movie "My name is Khan." Readers will definitely notice that. Sandhya Menon has taken too much liberty in shaping her characters and her story. But i really wish she worked a bit more on Dimple & Rishi. Their friends Celia, Rishi's brother Ashish  are well written sketches.

The background stories of both Rishi & Dimple families are quite convincing. However, the way Rishi's family have already accepted Dimple as their future daughter in law is a bit far reached.

To be honest, i thought i would never complete this book . But  I am glad this book proved me wrong. I read it at work, in bus, drew a sketch (its on twitter) & heard non stop love songs. So Thank you Dimple and Rishi. Thank you for the warm & fuzzy feeling.

This book should definitely come with a playlist of its own.

All in all, this YA Romantic fiction is a book for all ages. Thankfully romance doesn't need any age verification.

I heard this playlist, while penning down this review:-

1. Hum Tum Title Song.
2. My dil goes Hmm
3. Aye Udi Udi
4. Sathiya
5. O hum dum Suniyo Re
6. Kahin to Hogi Woh


You can buy this book from- Flipkart

I hope Sandhya Menon comes out with another book soon. 















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