The Story Behind The Rules of Arrangement and a Journey to Writing 

By ANISHA BHATIA.​

One hot Sunday in Bombay, my auntie rushed into our apartment, vexed. Her skin was flushed, and she faced my parents and demanded, “What are you all doing?” The focus was me, all of 22 years old, and the topic was my marriage. Her urgency was palpable in her rushing out of the auto straight into my grandparent’s ground floor apartment where we had all gathered, as was her despair that no one was looking for a groom.

Something had to be done right that very second or it would be too late, that I need to be put inside an ambulance and carried to the emergency hospital Where Grooms Are Found. My parents, poor things, sheepishly said they were waiting for her to initiate the proceedings due to her large network of connections. They were all talking about me, and I was sitting right there. 

Sounds familiar? This forms the opening page of THE RULES OF ARRANGEMENT and is very loosely based on the actual incident that happened when I was younger. Although Zoya is nothing like me, nor is Sheila Bua like my auntie, nor anything that follows in the book remotely close to my life, I’ve never forgotten it and that episode formed the basis of Zoya’s story.

During that incident, or even otherwise, I wasn’t allowed to say out loud all the blasphemous things I thought because an over-opinionated girl in conventional societies back then (and I suspect even now) would be branded non-marriageable. But the thoughts stayed and eventually formed Zoya’s point of view. (I do have a very specific acknowledgement in the book that none of my family is in the story. NO character is like any of them. Just throwing this out there.) 

My journey to writing has not been standard. I didn’t write short stories as a child or created fictional worlds, or any of the foreshadowing that is expected of being an author. Nor did I know that I’d write one day. I didn’t. It’s bewildering and makes me feel like an imposter some days.

Who am I to call myself a writer with just one book, when others have written – and keep writing – multitudes of stories, published or otherwise? But as I piece memories together, I realize, to my shock, that the nucleus of writing existed. In the dreaded English language exam papers at school, primarily the last part of the exam, the Essay.

The exam gave you three topics to choose for your essay and most students hated it because it was at the end of an hour-long written test: your hands were tired of writing; your brain was shutting down. But the essay was my favorite part. I would relish the topics, rub my hands and sink into writing.

My school friends thought I was insane. I remember now, a composition which turned into a story with elements of mystery dragged out to the climax in the tenth grade. This earned eight points out of ten, an essay score unheard of in my school. The teacher passed around my exam paper in the class for other students to read. “I can’t be a writer. That is for fancier people. Not me, surely.” One forgets old memories. Even the praiseworthy ones.

Cue to the average South Asian adulthood. Education, job, family. Motherhood devoured most of my brain cells, and the writing. In the midst of post-partum depression after my second baby, I took up an evening class just to get out of the house and wake my brain. The class was called Creating Unforgettable Characters and Sheila Bua was the end result.

But I still didn’t think I was a writer. Well, not a serious one anyway, no matter how many times I edited, or I looked for an agent or a publisher. But somehow, I stuck with the book, wanting to reach the finish line. Either that, or just too many people now knew about the book, and I had no choice but to see it through! However, patience, persistence and a thick hide, and here we are. THE RULES OF ARRANGEMENT, releasing July 13. Those three attributes, by the way, I don’t have in abundance and continue to be a constant work in progress.

If you wonder whether you are a writer, look back at and find the patterns. Find those nuggets. No one else will do them for you. A special mention for women, South Asian women in particular, who have been taught to stay small, to not to praise themselves, to brush off achievements. 

Don’t. 

Don’t shrink yourself. Stand tall. 

And believe. 

Belief is critical. Belief in what, you may ask, because I don’t know if my writing is any good. Believe in the process. That it will come together. That you will find a way. If I could leave you with one piece of advice it is this: treat your writing as seriously as you treat your job. Give it the importance it deserves if you want to be a writer. Step by step, slow and steady. Keep the faith. You will get there. 

—

Born and brought up in Mumbai, India, Anisha now lives in San Diego, California with her husband and their two children. She loves tea, biryani, books and beaches, not necessarily in that order. The Rules of Arrangement is her first book.​

Find out more about her on her website: https://www.anishabhatia.com/

THE RULES OF ARRANGEMENT

Uzma Jalaluddin’s Ayesha at Last meets Jane Igharo’s Ties That Tether in this own voices comedy of manners set in Mumbai where modernity jostles with tradition.

Zoya Sahni has a great education, a fulfilling job and a loving family (for the most part). But she is not the perfect Indian girl. She’s overweight, spunky and dark-skinned in a world that prizes the slim, obedient and fair. At 26 she is hurtling toward her expiration date in Mumbai’s arranged marriage super-mart, but when her auntie’s matchmaking radar hones in on the Holy Grail of suitors–just as Zoya gets a dream job offer in New York City–the girl who once accepted her path as almost option-less must now make a choice of a lifetime.

Big-hearted with piercing social commentary, The Rules of Arrangement tells a powerful, irresistibly charming and oh-so relatable tale of a progressive life that won’t be hemmed in by outdated rules. But not without a few cultural casualties, and of course, an accidental love story along the way.

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing