Question: Do any of your characters resemble you?

Answer: Shivani resembles me the most. Her sense of humor and her love for her family. I’m very close to my family and their well-being matters a lot to me.

Family Matters

My family matters a lot to me and it makes me happy to see them happy. Though I was born and raised in the Bay Area and am a proud American citizen, I have been exposed to Indian culture from a young age. I heard many stories about my grandparents, British era, and essentially what life was like back then. The credit for this mostly goes to my mother. When she married my father, she moved to the United States, but still carried a strong love for her homeland, India. Till this day, I have this fascination with India. And whenever I travel there, I feel this peculiar sense of familiarity and peace.

My father came to the United States, studied, and graduated from college here. I have learned to be patient and focused on my goals from him. Growing up, my father checked my homework everyday and attended school events religiously. My parents are very similar to Shivani’s parents in Enchanted Silence.

Searching for Meaning…

Obviously, like Shivani, I’ve been a technical recruiter and most of those scenes involving her office are real to what I have experienced. And I think, like Shivani as well, I’ve searched for meaning in my life and it led me on this wonderful journey of writing a novel.