Riva Razdan: Hope is a precursor to joy

First-time author Riva Razdan’s protagonist Arzu (the Urdu name means hope and love) is uncertain about her future, after being dumped by her long-time boyfriend and trying to evade the society circles of Bombay in 1991. A media baron’s daughter, she nurtures no dream of journalism, until she finds herself drawn to it in New York. Arzu (Hachette India) is a coming-of-age story of the protagonist at a time when India is on the verge of economic liberalisation.