Lilacs Bloom In My Backyard

Thirty-year-old successful interior designer Ramona falls in love with the suave Amit while on a holiday in the US. After their whirlwind romance and a hurried engagement, Ramona calls the whole thing off just days before the wedding, shocking her orthodox parents. Misha is a painter by profession and her lively face never betrays that she’s living in an abusive relationship. When things go out of hand, she confides in her good friend Ramona, who finds herself getting drawn towards Misha. They become quite close through the last stages of Misha’s marriage and Ramona develops a strong fondness for Misha’s twelve-year-old daughter Aastha. One scared and the other scarred by the rough tides of marriage, the two women discover each other anew and foster a bond to last a lifetime. Written in simple and touching prose, Lilacs Bloom In My Backyard is a coming-of-age novel for the urban, professional woman. It traces the self-discovery of a woman caught in the middle of tradition and modern life. New possibilities, new scents beckon her and she wants to, needs to give them a chance. The age-old ways of loving might just prove more fulfilling if she can choose who to love.


Meenu Mehrotra has been associated with writing for the last eighteen years. Her work has appeared in national magazines and newspapers and she has won a special mention in the Gentleman Public Service Advertising Award 1993 for her campaign on AIDS awareness.