When Dimple Met Rishi
Written by Sandhya Menon

Publisher’s Summary:
Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?

Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him–wherein he’ll have to woo her–he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.

The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

Primary Source Pairing:
It was Dimple’s idea, based on her research of the winners of the past years, to do the dance for the talent show. She strategically chose the song “Dil Na Diya” because of the dominant male dancing and a small female part. Rishi, of course, agrees. The final dance ended up sharing more of the dancing and resulted in a win from the judges. For this primary source pairing, invite students to watch and analyze the dance to the song “Dil Na Diya” from the movie Krrish and make connections to the book.

Questions for Discussion:

• Describe what you see and hear.
• What do you notice first?
• What other details do you notice?
• What was the purpose of this dance in the movie?
• Who are the people who appear in it?
• Do you think it was filmed on location or was there a stage set?
• Who do you think was the intended audience?
• What feelings or ideas do you think its creators wanted to communicate?
• How did Dimple and Rishi grow closer in practicing this dance?
• Why was this dance important to their character development individually and together?

Credits:
Book Cover and Summary: Follett
“Dil Na Diya” (Full Song) Krrish: YouTube