Leesburg author Bhavna Bhatia Roszel screamed when she discovered her debut novel had won an International Impact Award.
“The ‘I’ in Indian,” released this summer, tells the story of Aria Kapoor, a second-generation Indian immigrant in the U.S., and a romance that forces her to confront cultural ideas about love, heal from old wounds, and find her true self.
Roszel, a second-generation Indian immigrant, infuses the story with her lived experiences and perspective, garnering her the Multicultural Romance Award in October’s International Impact Book Awards.
Aria has a problem with love.
She’s divorced, which Roszel said is a “big no no” in Indian culture.
But Aria falls in love with Leo Roselli —someone outside of Indian culture—forcing her to reconcile cultural perceptions of love with her individual desires. Roszel said the story evolves into Aria overcoming the challenges from that divide, bringing her family on board, and conquering “obstacles to true love.”
“The I in Indian” is also dual perspective, contrasting love interest Leo’s upbringing with Aria’s.
Roszel said she wanted to subvert the “perfect book boyfriend” trope with Leo’s character. Rather than reducing him to “an imaginary figure,” Roszel said she wanted readers to “get in his head,” and watch him try to better understand his partner.
“She’s taught that being divorced matters, right? That her age matters, that her profession matters, this and all these things—and he doesn’t see any of that, right?” Roszel said. “All he sees is this girl that he’s crazy about. He shows how uncomplicated love can actually be.”
The main love story, which Roszel calls Aria’s second chance at love, dissects self-sabotage and depicts the complexities of healing from past relationships.
In the first scene of the novel, Aria retells countless date flops while swigging a vodka soda in her car. She had matched with Leo on a dating app, which comes with its own baggage. Despite how excited she was by the profile, her burnout is palpable.
Luckily for both, they get along.
Initially, Aria tries to hide Leo from the family. The ploy doesn’t last long– Aria’s little sister, Saira, reads her easily. Saira says her “lips are sealed” and the two are described as “thick as thieves.”
“She’s the rebel,” Roszel said of Aria’s role in the family.
Fan of the book Julia Bay said she resonated deeply with Aria’s journey.
“I mean we all have these periods in our life where we may feel like we’re disappointing people, right, by not doing what is expected of us,” she said.
More than just a rebel, Aria describes her family household as “warm” and lovingly details the décor, food and scents. Roszel said she wanted to demonstrate the complexity of Aria’s character.
Roszel also draws inspiration from Middleburg in Loudoun, setting part of her story in “Middletown,” where Leo is from. A quiet, small town with beautiful scenery, “Middletown” helps Aria slow down internally and connect with Leo. The two also go on a date in “Aurburn,” described similarly to Ashburn.
The novel riffs on the elaborate romance films of Bollywood, with nods to how Bollywood influences the characters’ views of love in the book.
Roszel said those stories can be “so different from real life.”
“[Bollywood] was a huge influence in my upbringing as is for most second-generation people growing up here,” Roszel said.
William Timme/ Loudoun Now
Roszel’s parents moved to the United States in their 20s.
“It’s a very unique experience in the sense that, like your parents that come here, they’re trying so hard to preserve their culture from where they came from and stay within the culture that this daughter, this second-generation person, is trying to balance with both identities,” she said.
With two sisters, Roszel’s house was one “full of girliness all the time,” she said. Her mother owned a travel agency, leading to summer-long outings in Mussoorie, a town in India at the foothills of the Himalayas. Almost every night, after a small hike, Roszel and her family rode a hand-cranked Ferris wheel together. After, they ate chocolate bars and watched sunsets from the mountains.
Back in the States, Roszel said her reality, consisted of American schools, American music and American kids. To first-gen immigrants, she “wasn’t quite Indian enough,” but to American kids she was “super Indian,” Roszel said. For a long time, she said she didn’t feel like “a good Indian.”
“I mean I did all the things you weren’t supposed to do,” Roszel said. “I drank. I dated. I went out. … It wasn’t until much later in life, when I started to finally write, that I realized being Indian is just something you are. It’s not something you do.”
Roszel said her parents are nothing like her book protagonist’s.
Roszel’s parents have a loving marriage, which she said was rare for their generation. Some of Roszel’s cousins entered arranged marriages, but her parents didn’t want that for her. They encouraged her to explore in life and in love.
Roszel said she named the book “The I in Indian” because Aria needs to realize that “being Indian can mean whatever she wants it to mean.”
“And I think that’s different for everybody,” she said. “That’s all cultures. We’re all different than our parents.”
A talented writer since childhood, Roszel got into poetry early and her mother would submit her works in contests. Despite winning often, she didn’t realize how deeply she loved writing until college.
At George Mason University, Roszel joined the Indian dance team, dancing to Bollywood songs and performing at weddings, birthday and events. At the same time, she honed her writing.
The work paid off.
As Roszel’s first stab at fiction, “The I in Indian” was recognized by the International Impact Book Awards. A discovery she made near the end of September.
The International Impact Book Awards is “more than a recognition program—it is a global movement dedicated to celebrating the excellence in storytelling and honoring authors whose words spark transformation,” according to their website.
Roszel will be attending a winner’s gala in Phoenix, AZ, in November.
“I was very nervous to put this out there,” she said of “The I in Indian.”
“I thought it might be a little controversial. … To win this award was extremely validating.”
Book reviewer Samantha Dennings called “The I in Indian” “an easy read” during a conversation with Loudoun Now.
“It just felt like the story grabbed me right away, and I didn’t want to stop reading it,” Dennings said. “Like, I didn’t watch my favorite show that night, or whatever I needed to do as soon as I got off work.
She awarded the book five stars on her book review Instagram @reading.in.starshollow.
Roszel is also creating a series, with two more novels planned. Each of them will focus on one of Aria’s two sisters, she said.
William Timme/ Loudoun Now
To learn more or purchase “The I in Indian” go to iinindian.com.
Roszel will also be selling and signing the book at the Cascades Library in Sterling as part of the Eat Local Read Local program Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.