''Anagram Destiny'': Exploring identity, belonging and resilience

New Delhi, Jun 1 (PTI) India-born and America-raised academic Grishma Shah says she has always carried an unwavering love for her roots and her new book "Anagram Destiny" is a "love letter to an ever-inspiring India, the US that shaped me, and the dreams that bridge the two".

She describes her book as a "tale of first love, human kindness, grief and the indomitable spirit that binds us across oceans and generations", adding it "aims to humanise and simplify the growing complexity in our world".

The novel with dual setting contrasts the glittering expanse of Mumbai's luxury hotels with the warmth of an immigrant-family motel in Georgia.

An exploration of the aspirational and embryonic Indian dream at the turn of the millennium, juxtaposed against the evolving narrative of the Indian-American dream, publishers Simon & Schuster India said.

In "Anagram Destiny", Shah unspools a story of Aanya, an Indian-American expat in Mumbai seeking to outrun memories of her upbringing, in which her Indian-immigrant parents and their best friends manifest the American dream by turning over a 34-room motel.

"Born in Vadodara, India and raised in America, I have always carried an unwavering love for my roots. This love has defined both my life and my work. As a professor of global business and development (at Manhattan College, New York), I have spent years studying India's rise in a changing world," Shah says.

"Through 'Anagram Destiny', I extend that journey beyond data - into the timeless power of story," she adds. PTI ZMN RB