Alumna’s Debut Novel Draws From Experience as the Daughter of Indian Immigrants

The story in Grishma Shah's first book began to take root during her time at Rutgers

Rutgers alumna Grishma Shah has penned her first novel, Anagram Destiny, which debuted in September.

As a college professor, Grishma Shah uses her storytelling skills to teach her students about economics, culture and globalization.

"Students rarely remember the numbers, graphs or data, but they do perk up and recall the colorful, rich stories I tell them to bring the knowledge to life," said Shah, a Monroe, N.J., resident who has received three degrees from Rutgers and now teaches at Manhattan University.

Shah decided to set aside the textbooks for a while and take her storytelling to another level. Her debut novel, Anagram Destiny, was released in September by Spark Press/Simon & Schuster.

In the world of publishing, they say, 'Write what you know,' and Shah seemed to have followed that advice. She uses her life experience as the daughter of Indian immigrants and her academic knowledge of world economies to tell the story of Aanya and her childhood friend and eventually her husband Ayaan Parekh. The story is about the sacrifices immigrants make to achieve the American dream, but it's also about the rise of India as a major player in the global marketplace.

The families are friends because they share a bond of culture and familiarity, being the only Indians within 100 miles living in Georgia. The two fictional families run a 34-room roadside motel, mirroring Shah's own childhood experience as her family ran a motel in New Jersey. Her uncle still runs a motel in New Jersey.

Shah's family came to America when she was 7 and settled in Lawrenceville, N.J., but there are little references to the Garden State, or its well-known locations, including Rutgers, in her book. She said she wanted to create some space between fact and fiction.

"The experience is real, but the locations are made up," Shah said.

She picked Georgia as the primary American location of Anagram Destiny because she also wanted to convey the Indian immigrant experience in the U.S. It's estimated that about half the country's mom-and-pop motels are owned by immigrants from Indiaand the majority of those, Shah added, are in the South along Interstate 95.

Rutgers may not appear by name in her book, but Shah said the story behind Anagram Destiny began to take root while she was a student at the university. As an undergrad majoring in political science, Shah went to India in 1999 as a part of Rutgers' Study Abroad program.

"That time profoundly impacted me," Shah said. Though she had been to India many times before, it was the first time she was going without her family, enabling her to see the country from another perspective.

"I volunteered at the Missionaries of Charity in Old Delhi, helped rebuild homes for   earthquake survivors, and witnessed firsthand the stark contrast of 'two Indias' - one racing toward globalization with skyscrapers rising in Gurgaon, while another battled severe challenges, like poverty, inequality and gender inequity. This duality of India left an indelible mark on me," Shah said.

She received her bachelor's degree in 2001 and her master's in public affairs and politics a year later from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. As she was working toward her doctoral degree at Rutgers in Newark, her professor Kevin Kolbenasked her in 2006 to join him as an assistant on a study trip and return to India.

"That's when I really began to see all the changes taking place in India - all the impact of globalization, how people were changing, how culture was changing," she said. "Prior to that, the last time I had gone back was during the study abroad trip, so I felt a shift happening."

The economic policies were implemented in the early 90s, she said, with results a decade later. In those short years between 1999 and 2008 between Shah's visits, India "went from being an economy that was once stagnant to being an economy that was fast growing. We call it the India Rising era."

Kolben, who lived in India between 1995-1996, saw those changes firsthand.

"While a lot of the discussion, particularly in business circles, was about 'India Rising,' it was clear that there were two Indias - one that was entering modernity and the global economy, and one that was left out," said Kolben, who is a professor of business law at Rutgers Business School, Newark. "I was interested in exposing my students to all facets of that. So, it meant exposure to realities that might have been uncomfortable, or that challenged their world views. Many of the students had never been to a developing country before. Some had never been out of the U.S., and India - especially the unfiltered version - can be a lot for someone who is more used to the New Jersey suburbs."

He added it's particularly rewarding to hear the impact his teaching left on Shah.

"It doesn't matter which way they might have been affected, but at least you made a difference in someone's life, whether it be intellectual, professional or personal," he said.

In the book, Aanya also witnesses these changes as she, too, arrives in 2008 in Gurgaon, a modern city of high rises, luxury hotels, malls and rapid transportation in northern part of the country. The software engineer is there for a long-term tech project for her job. Her story is told in dual timeline - 1980s Georgia and 2008 India. As the story unfolds, the reader learns why Aanya has come to India alone, telling her love story between the two timelines.

Shah said she began the book in 2018 and completed the first draft a year later. She calls it her passion project and hopes to follow up with another novel, but she plans to return to the classroom to tell her stories to her students.

"When I focus on one person, their personal stakes, their highs and lows, their gains and losses, their triumphs and tribulations, that is when they listen intently," she said. "That is when they absorb and become invested. It is then that they begin to build empathy and see themselves in a stranger across the world. It is then that we develop conscious and compassionate future leaders and decision-makers."

Shah will reunite with her former professor, Kevin Kolben, to discuss Anagram Destiny, for a discussion of her novel and how her time at Rutgers impacted her novel during a talk Nov. 20 at noon at Rutgers Business School, 1 Washington Park, Newark room 508.

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