Lovetorn (21 page)

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Authors: Kavita Daswani

Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #People & Places, #United States, #Other, #Social Issues, #Adolescence, #New Experience

kohl (k
l)
– black eyeliner

ladoos (LUH-doos)
– Indian dessert of sweetened chickpea flour rolled into little balls

Limca (LIHM-kuh)
– a fizzy lemon drink very popular in India

mangalsutra (mahn-guhl-SOO-truh)
– black-and-gold necklace worn by married women

masalas (ma-SAH-las)
– spices

mubarak (MOO-bah-ruhk)
– congratulations; best wishes

namkaran (NAHM-kah-rahn)
– naming ceremony performed by Hindus after the birth of a child

Na roh (Nah ro)
– literally translates as “Don’t cry”

paan (pawn)
– a common food of betel leaf stuffed with a type of tropical nut and other condiments. It is often spat out, leaving a red stain.

pallu (PUH-loo)
– part of a sari that drapes across the shoulder

raita (RYE-tuh)
– yogurt condiment

salwar kameez (suhl-WAHR ka-MEEZ)
– traditional Indian outfit of loose pants and tunic top

shawarma (sha-WER-muh)
– Middle Eastern sandwich

sindoor (SIHN-dur)
– a red powder worn in the hairline by married women

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my agent, Jodie Rhodes, who has about the sharpest instincts of anyone I know.

Thanks to my editor, Phoebe Yeh, and associate editor, Jayne Carapezzi, at HarperCollins, who nurtured this like it was their own and always knew I had more—and better—in me.

I am so grateful to my cousin Divya Vaswani in Bangalore, who read the earliest draft and confirmed to me that girls like Shalini were real.

Thanks to Abbey Coolidge, my link to the land of teens, who took me to her high school and told me when Shalini and her friends were “too polite.”

And thanks to my dear friend, Meena Makhijani—a doctor, a dancer, and an embodiment of all that is wondrous about Indian womanhood.

About the Author

Kavita Daswani
has been a fashion correspondent for CNN International, CNBC Asia, and Women’s
Wear Daily
. Her stories have appeared in the
Los Angeles Times, International Herald Tribune, Vogue India
, and
Entrepreneur
magazine, among many other publications. She was also formerly the fashion editor of the
South China Morning Post
in Hong Kong. Her adult novels include
FOR MATRIMONIAL PURPOSES, THE VILLAGE BRIDE OF BEVERLY HILLS
, and
SALAAM, PARIS
. She is also the author of
INDIE GIRL
(for teens). Kavita grew up in Hong Kong and spent summers in Mumbai, where her parents are from. She now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons. You can visit her online at www.kavitadaswani.com.

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Credits

Jacket art © 2012 by Ron Levine/Getty Images
Jacket design by Tom Forget

Lovetorn
Copyright © 2012 by Kavita Daswani

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Daswani, Kavita, date.

Lovetorn / by Kavita Daswani. — 1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-06-167311-5 (trade bdg.)

[1. Moving, Household—Fiction. 2. East Indians—California—Fiction. 3. Love—Fiction. 4. Arranged marriage—Fiction. 5. Family life—California—Fiction. 6. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.D2597Lov 2012

[Fic]—dc23

2011019361
CIP
AC