{"id":1430,"date":"2005-04-27T15:57:57","date_gmt":"2005-04-27T20:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=1430"},"modified":"2005-04-27T14:18:08","modified_gmt":"2005-04-27T19:18:08","slug":"how_opal_mehta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2005\/04\/27\/how_opal_mehta\/","title":{"rendered":"How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and…"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the title alone I think I’m going to like this book. Little Brown & Company has offered Kaavya Viswanathan a $500,000, two book deal. The Financial Express provides the details<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n

You\u00c2\u2019re 17 and want to get into US\u00c2\u2019 Harvard University, but first what do you do about those infernal jumping hormones that every gal goes through post-teens. Being an Indian, you don\u00c2\u2019t indulge your sex-oriented daydreams (study first, pleasure later). So the next best option is to pen them to paper and get rid of the hots<\/strong>. \n
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\nIn a huge first, US born Kaavya Viswanathan did exactly that and more. Little Brown & Company, a respected 109-year-old publishing house offered Kaavya a $500,000 two-book deal with the first one to be out next spring titled How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got In<\/strong>. Considering that first-time writers get $10,000, Kaavya sure made a killing.<\/blockquote>\n\n

Writing is also the way I get rid of my “hots.”<\/p>\n\n

The New York Sun<\/a> (registration required) goes into more detail:<\/p>\n\n

Ms. Viswanathan began writing the novel while still at the Bergen County Academy at Hackensack. She’s the only child of her Indian-born parents, Viswanathan Rajaraman, a neurosurgeon, and Mary Sundaram, a gynecologist.\n
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\n“Everybody in my family, including my parents, won science prizes,” Ms. Viswanathan said. “I was the one with the writing gene – and I’ve no idea where that came from. My parents are still in a state of shock. When I’ve gone home on some weekends, they look at me working at my computer and surely wonder, ‘Who is that strange person?'”<\/blockquote>\n\n

What I can’t help noticing is that a 17-year-old writer, seems to like writing about day-dreams and possibilities, and getting wild, whereas older writers like to focus on why Indian men (or women) suck.<\/p>\n\n

“The main character is a girl of Indian descent who’s totally academically driven, and when she senses from a Harvard admissions officer that her personal life wasn’t perhaps well-rounded, Ms. Mehta goes out and does what she thinks ‘regular’ American kids do – get drunk, kiss boys, dance on the table,” Ms. Viswanathan said<\/strong>.<\/blockquote>\n\n

Can I get a “hell yeah?” Please, anyone? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n

Desilit Daily<\/a> comments: I can’t tell if this is more likely to sell to desi high school students applying to colleges, or to the parents desperate to get them in to Harvard…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By the title alone I think I’m going to like this book. Little Brown & Company has offered Kaavya Viswanathan a $500,000, two book deal. The Financial Express provides the details: You\u00c2\u2019re 17 and want to get into US\u00c2\u2019 Harvard … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}