Year of the Chick

An awkward family homecoming at Christmas.

A humiliating public weigh-in, with two judging parents as the audience.

The announcement of a deadline for arranged marriage doom.

And that's just the first two chapters.

In "Year of the Chick," Romi Narindra must find love before her parents find her a husband.

But this is North America, not Calcutta! Who lets their parents choose their husbands?!

Easy to say, less easy to live through, as this book takes you deep inside "awkward Indian living in the West."

To escape her fate, Romi wades through the waters of secret-dating, where self-consciousness is at an all-time high, and experience at an all-time low. It's the sort of thing that would turn almost anyone into a man-crazy freak with romance tunnel-vision, and that's exactly what happens to her. All the while, a lack of inspiration in her corporate job leads Romi to her love of writing, in what quickly becomes a man-quest play-by-play.

From whiskey-breath scum bags to uni-brow creeps and everything in between, Romi and her wingmen come up empty time after time.

And that's when she meets a fellow writer.

On the Internet.

So will it be arranged marriage doom, or an Internet affair that's not as creepy as "To Catch a Predator"?

Time will tell in the "year of the chick," a twelve-month quest to find love.

Tick-tock.