4 Picks for Chick-lit

(mostly a compilation of her columns for the magazine), chick-lit is becoming a literary genre that will not allow itself to be dismissed.

Just like the feisty, witty, confident, strong, staggeringly beautiful women of substance who star in them.

GIRL ALONE,
Rupa Gulab

The plot will be familiar to all those of you who read Gulab's columns in Cosmo "" Arti is single and carefree in Mumbai, has great friends and an interesting job, but there is one overarching sadness in her life "" the lack of a man.

Arti is sometimes deeply unpleasant and frighteningly pretentious, and it is no wonder she is single; in fact, the only surprise here is how this book ever got published, and who on earth is buying it.

QUEEN OF DREAMS,
Chitra Divakaruni

Riding high on the wave of Indian exoticism, Divakaruni's latest offering after the ever-popular Mistress of Spices, which they're making into a film starring Aishwarya Rai, again banks on its portrayal of India as a country of untamed, musky fantasy, and contrasts this to the dry disillusionment that the West seems to embody for many modern immigrants.

Despite accusations that she is simply cashing in on an overly airbrushed image of India, Divakaruni must be doing something right to have won the millions of readers that she has all over the world.

BEYOND INDIGO,
Preethi Nair

The plot resembles one of those Mills & Boons novels: the heroine leads a secret life as a painter and weaves (and increasingly gets entangled in) a web of deceit when she finds her work coming under the international spotlight.

She creates a fictitious painter, and pretends to be his agent (apparently based on real life experiences of the author). With all her devious plotting, Nina is flustered into agreeing to an arranged marriage, and in the end something's gotta give.

MAYA RUNNING,
Anjali Bannerjee

More for the 12 - 15 age group, Maya Running is about Mayasri Mukherjee, a girl growing up in a Canadian town. On top of all the usual awkwardnesses of her age, Maya has the added disadvantage of a different culture stacked up like bricks on her young shoulders.

The story would do well to continue along these lines, but instead billows out into fantasy. Still, this is an endearing book and will probably appeal to kids for its universal themes of love and acceptance.