Acknowledgements
(from Sukriti)
To everyone in my family who reads my drafts, helps me brainstorm, and endures me with patience and humour: Nana-Nani, Mama-Papa, Masi, Sonika, Siddhant, my parents-in-law, my sister-in-law, and the Agarwal, Yadava, and Jhunjhunwala families.
To my professors, mentors, and gurus: Hugh Pullan, David Impey, Mark Eyeington, Philip Lopate, Margo Jefferson, and Patricia O'Toole. To all my teachers at Maneckji Cooper, Dhirubhai Ambani, the London School of Economics, and Columbia University, who have shaped me greatly.
To my friends who generously read and provide genius insights that make every draft ever better: Vatsal Neelakantan, Samantha Schnell, Caitlin Rimshnick, Ashma Kunde, Tara Khandelwal, and Shivaun Chandiramani.
To my agents who refine my stories and champion me in the real world: Radhika Gopal, Utkarsha Bhangaonkar, and everyone at Tulsea.
Gold Digger: Treasure of Son Bhandar
To my younger sister, Sonika, for coming up with the fabulous name.
To my family.
To Vatsal Neelakantan, whose clear-sighted and expert feedback over many drafts strengthened Aunum, Nik, and the entire world of Gold Digger.
To Utkarsha Bhangaonkar, Charit Desai, and Sneha Lalwani for hours of feedback that improved every draft.
To Shonali Bose for taking a chance on this story, and providing it its first blurb.
To Shreyanshu Purohit for the original cover.
To Harshad Marathe for the current, updated cover design.
Beta Builder: Mumbai in the Metaverse
To the Writers' INK Lab 2023-2024, where I first developed this story as a screenplay.
To my friends and fellow participants: Aakash, Aditi, Ambarien, Anureet, Arshaly, Manasvini, Neel, Nishant, Priyanka, Soma, Sulagna, Supriya, and Utpala.
To my professors and mentors: Sushma Khadepaun, Anshulika Dubey, Cari Daly, and Gabrielle Kelly.
To Kanak Kothawale, for the stunning sci-fi renderings of Javed's designs.
To Harshad Marathe for the cover design.
Bride's Guide to Shopping in India
To my family, for reading so many drafts.
To my friends who read the book and spent hours (I'm not exaggerating!) talking me through their feedback. You helped this project more than you might realise: Rashi Jhunjhunwala, Roshini Agarwal, Anushka Shah, Samantha Schnell, Caitlin Rimshnick, and Kanasu Nagathihalli.
To the entire Denver Writers Workshop for workshopping this story diligently, and especially to the following readers who read the full novel and sent me feedback: Alan Felyk, Chris Baetens, Jim Brown, Leona Godin, and Waleed Ahmad. Our basement coffee chats fuelled the earliest drafts of this book!
To Manasi Subramaniam at Penguin for many rounds of feedback.
To Anuj Bahri at Red Ink and Mita Kapur at Siyahi for their time and feedback.
To Kristine Chong and Sonia Agarwal for always nudging me to "just publish the damn thing." ;)
To Belinda Downey for the beautiful original cover with which I pitched the novel from 2019 to 2024.
To Harshad Marathe for the current, updated cover design.
Love on a Visa
To Shravana Biswas, the most intuitive illustrator and best collaborator that a writer-producer could dream of.
To Kunal Kohli for his guidance on the Indian version of this story.
Captaan!
To Sharpy, for the updated character designs and wonderful ongoing collaboration.
To Sreehari Siva, for the original bold and visionary designs of the webcomic.
To Ashutosh Gowariker and Konark Gowariker for their belief in and enthusiasm for this story, and for reliably brilliant feedback.
Aliens of the Ivy League
To my friends Lacey Conley, Caroline Bodian, Rushil Dedhia and Saloni Shah for reading the screen version of this story, and answering one of writing's most difficult questions: "How can I make it funnier?"