Interview: KISMAT CONNECTION author Ananya Devarajan
Happy release week, KISMAT CONNECTION! I asked author Ananya Devarajan five questions about her book and her debut experience.
1. You wrote the first draft of KISMAT CONNECTION while you were in high school. Which books inspired you to write?
If there’s one thing you should know about high school Ananya, it’s that she was the biggest fan of WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI by Sandhya Menon. That novel was a foundational building block in my adoration for the young adult romance genre, but more importantly, it offered me a permission of sorts to write the book of my heart—one that undeniably centers Indian American joy at its forefront.
2. Can you tell us about the moment you learned KISMAT CONNECTION would be published? All the juicy details, please!
Ah, I love talking about this! For context, I work at a psychiatric office as a scribe, and when I got my deal, I was scheduled on a shift with back-to-back patient encounters. I could feel my phone buzzing in my pocket with email notifications and calls from my agent, and after five months of submission, I just had this gut feeling that this was the moment I’d been waiting for. I couldn’t bring myself to wait the appointment out, so I actually excused myself from the room to take the call, and I screamed at the top of my lungs once I heard the news—loudly enough to get the attention of our patients and the attending physician I scribed for. Luckily, the clinic was more than happy to celebrate with me. :)
3. KISMAT CONNECTION is a YA romance novel, but the borderline speculative elements have proven appealing to fantasy readers. Did you anticipate such a broad audience?
Honestly speaking, I didn’t anticipate the incredible audience response to KISMAT CONNECTION. I was seventeen when I wrote this novel, so genre-blending young adult romance with speculative fiction wasn’t a strategic choice, but rather, a chance to experiment with my developing style and voice on a relatively low-stakes level. I never expected KISMAT CONNECTION to be more than a word document on my computer, and now that it’s my breakout novel, I will say that I’m quite happy with past-me for deciding she wanted to include a magical element in her love stories. I want my books to function as a form of escapism, even in contemporary settings, and I think the fantastical aspects of KISMAT CONNECTION ring true to that purpose.
4. How do Arjun and Madhuri’s respective (and polar opposite) family dynamics play into the romance?
A lot of my educational background is rooted in neuroscience, and what researchers have seen is that family dynamics inherently influence the romantic desires of an individual. I wanted to play into this theory in KISMAT CONNECTION, and Madhuri and Arjun were the key to that. Madhuri is part of a family built from unconditional love, and that has instilled a sense of security in her. Madhuri believes she is fundamentally worthy of love, and therefore, she does not seek or chase it, oftentimes to a fault. Arjun, on the other hand, has been abandoned by his parents. To him, true love comes with conditions—including, but not limited to, saying yes whenever possible— which is why Arjun agrees to Madhuri’s fake dating experiment. Arjun, lacking love elsewhere, would do anything not to lose Madhuri, and Madhuri, satisfied with the love she already has, would do anything not to be tied down to Arjun.
5. Madhuri is so ambitious and protective of her goals and I love her for it. What would you say to girls who receive criticism for prioritizing themselves the same way?
As a girl like Madhuri, I’ve often been told I’m too much, which, in my case, I consider a catch-all term for too loud, too ambitious, and too stubborn. I spent a lot of my earlier years trying to hide that side of myself, afraid to take up space in a society that clearly doesn’t favor me, but eventually, I realized that the parts of Madhuri and I that make us “too much”—our opinions, our dreams, our convictions—are what our friends and family love most about us. So, to every girl who sees themselves in Madhuri, I want you to know that you are enough exactly as you are, and if the world doesn’t see that right now, that doesn’t mean it never will. And at the very least, know that KISMAT CONNECTION is a love letter to girls like you <3
Thank you for visiting, Ananya!
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