The Indian love story

Mumbai-based young author, Komal Mehta, says her debut novel, despite being a conventional love triangle, is not a Hindi movie script.

Penning down a novel wasn't exactly an uphill battle for the pretty young author, but facing publishers' rejection 13 times in a row was.

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Komal Mehta, the 27-year-old Mumbai-based senior marketing manager at Hash Entertainment (a film marketing agency) was in city on Saturday at Hotel Mount View, Sector 10, to talk about her book, which was released in June this year and has its story set in the locales of Chandigarh. "The incidents that the story revolves around are all based in Chandigarh. I have also picked up landmarks such as Sukhna Lake, the airport and Sector 17.

Hence, a visit to the city was mandatory," says Komal, who has been working in the movie-marketing field for the past four years, and is currently working with Hash Entertainment.

"Though Nick of Time is my first novel, it has not one but three protagonists - Alehya, Shagun and Vicky. It's a quintessential Indian romantic fiction, which is about falling in love, and the consistent confusion and restlessness that accompanies it," she says. Komal believes that the bookshelves in our country are stacked with foreign romantic novels, leaving youngsters with no choice. Hence, her decision of venturing into the genre.

"I always wanted to be a writer, but was never sure of my subjects. Being a firm follower of the saying, 'Love is without season or reason', I thought why not pick up the most confusing emotions of them all!" Though she confesses that the characters in her novel are her real friends, the love angle, she maintains, is fictitious.

Ask her if the novel's romance is anything close to a typical Hindi movie script, and she says, "I know the synopsis of my book sounds conventional, because it's a love triangle, but when you end up reading the book you will realise that it's much, much deeper than that."