Showing results by narrator "Sanjiv Jhaveri" in All Categories

When Vikram invites three of his college friends to his son’s graduation from MIT, they accept out of obligation and curiosity, viewing the party as a 25th reunion of sorts. Village genius Vikram, now the founder of a lucrative computer company, is having the party against his son’s wishes. Frances and Jay regret accepting: Frances, a real estate agent, hasn't sold a house in a year; Jay’s middle-management job isn't bragworthy; and their daughter is failing the eleventh grade. Lali plans to hide the fact that her once-happy marriage is crumbling because her American husband is discovering his Jewish roots.

Bombay's communal riots of 1992 - in which Hindus were alleged to be the primary perpetrators - were followed by retaliatory bomb blasts in 1993, masterminded by the Muslim-dominated underworld. Over a thousand citizens lost their lives in these internecine bouts of violence and thousands more became refugees in their own city. In a matter of months, Bombay ceased to be the cosmopolitan, wholesome, and middle-class bastion it had been for decades.

When the superstar diva of the past decade doesn't want to play the hero's mother on screen, she insists that she be reshaped into the most beautiful woman in the world...by any means. This is just one of the many odd situations which plastic surgeon Dr. Dhruv faces in Mumbai. He dealt with tyrannical bosses and finicky patients while undergoing his training, during which he also won over a stunning doctor as his life partner. But satisfying the movie stars is a different ball game.

Hill Mansion wasn't really a mansion; it was just a ramshackle hut on a small hill. But for Robert Pereira, it was better than any place he had seen in his village, Golvada. His chaddi buddies Anand and Baloo lived there with their elder brother Dattya - his hero and the village cricket team captain. Robert had named their hut Hill Mansion, moved by love for his buddies. It didn't matter to him that they were the sons of a domestic help.

Two young manager graduates, with nothing similar in family backgrounds and temperament, join a New York international bank on the same day - and take entirely different routes to success.

Journeys are always meant for destinations. But what if, when they are not.... The Journey to Nowhere is the story of a young couple, fighting against all odds for their love. Aditya, an aspiring medical student, is on a journey to his hometown to meet his love, Pooja, most probably for the last time. On the journey, the various conditions force Aditya to go into a journey amidst the shallow grooves of memories.

Beautifully and hauntingly written, After Disasters is told through the eyes of four people in the wake of a life-shattering earthquake in India. An intricate story of love and loss weaves together the emotional and intimate narratives of Ted, a pharmaceutical salesman turned member of the Disaster Assistance Response Team; his colleague Piotr, who still carries with him the scars of the Bosnia conflict.

When Madan’s father's misdeeds jeopardize his sister's life, Madan strikes his first bargain with Avtaar Singh to save her. Drawn into Avtaar Singh's violent world, Madan becomes his son in every way but by blood. Suddenly it looks as if everything will change for Madan and his family until a forbidden love affair has brutal consequences and he is forced to leave behind all that is dear to him.

Ever since local boy Lester Ward got drafted by the University of Iowa Hawkeyes and football fever hit Goodhue, Iowa, scrawny Ned Button can think of nothing but the game. Sure, Lester’s younger bully of a brother is determined to keep Ned and his gang from ever getting near a real pickup game. But Ned has a few tricks up his sleeve: he can catch and sometimes even throw, much to his surprise. And he’s got his eccentric grandpa Ike, who has less get-up-and-go these days, but no shortage of down-home wisdom.

Vikram is not your model Indian-American teenager. Growing up in late 1980s Wisconsin, he is rebellious, adrift, and resentful of his Indian roots. But a disastrously drunken weekend becomes a one-way ticket back to the homeland for Vikram after his outraged parents decide to pack up the family and return to India.

When Jill McCorkle feels a short story coming on, she goes right ahead and "wastes" wonderful ideas instead of hoarding them for a novel. The result is another extraordinary collection of stories and characters. In "It's a Funeral! RSVP," the storyteller is a woman who takes up self-styled "careers" that suit her circumstances. Now she's stumbled onto one that's so successful that she just can't quit. It's planning funerals, what she calls Going Out Parties, in which the clients are the soon-to-be-deceased themselves.