SMITTEN

Populated by women, their desires, dilemmas, decisions and doubts, this book undoubtedly seeks women as its favoured readers. Men are welcome to help themselves to it as well, but they may find themselves somewhat lost in a literary setting that nudges them aside, albeit playfully.
At 28, Jayanti is seemingly a woman who has it all: a good looking fiancé who is a pilot in the Air Force, a well-paying cushy job, two loving parents and close friends. But in reality she is unravelling. Alok, her fiancé, doesn’t hold the mojo for her anymore. She hates her job. After six years on the same beat, she wants something more out of her life. Her life comes undone pretty much after her chance encounter with Russo at an art gallery in Hyderabad where she lives. Russo is not just an artist but also a drug dealer, working for a Goan drug overlord, Jimmy. Unsuspectingly, through a strange sequence of events involving her naïve maid Vijji, Jayanti finds herself in a heady situation mixed with drugs and goons that takes her to Gokarna, even as she falls head over heels in love with Russo. Her two friends Arpita, a Tollywood starlet and Srilaxmi, a much married woman looking for excitement, are along for the ride. The journey, although foolishly motivated, helps her and her friends, find some answers for themselves.