What Will People Think?

Ila has her pride. And she's about to discover just how much trouble that can be... It's 1976 and in the Vile Parle district of Mumbai, bastion of the Maharashtrian middle-class, Ila Bendre's mother is determined to get her four daughters married off as soon as possible. Ila has no intention of snaring a proposal from some dull specimen of Marathi manhood so she can pretend to care about cricket for the rest of her life. She wants a career and life of her own, and she'll do whatever it takes to escape married bliss, no matter what the neighbours might say. But when Ila's Bollywood-obsessed younger sister, Latika, takes the matter of marriage into her owns hands, it looks as if the Bendre family's reputation in this close-knit community will be ruined once and for all... As we follow the Bendre sisters from dinners to parties to weddings, from Vile Parle to Pune, will love eventually conquer all in this ingeniously witty and charming tale of pride, prejudice and puran polis?

Vedashree Khambete-Sharma works as an Executive Creative Director in one of Mumbai's oldest advertising agencies and in the course of her 18-year copywriting career, she has won both Indian and international awards for her work, including a Cannes Lion. What Will People Think? is her fifth novel.