The Diary of a Lutyens’ Princess

Chronicling a middle-class girl's tumultuous journey over five decades, The Diary of a Lutyens' Princess is satirical yet inspirational, heartbreaking yet heart-warming. Starry-eyed young Akshraa defies her parents to marry the man she loves, but soon realizes that youthful passion does not always translate into everlasting togetherness. Carving a professional niche for herself in her early thirties, she becomes one of a rare and successful breed of 'intrapreneurs'. Her life takes another turn when she falls for and ties the knot with Suryaprakash, the scion of one of the first families of business India, a package that comes riddled with its own set of sorrows. But Akshraa retains her vivacity and spiritedness, penning witty observations on the superficially perfect lives of the elite, beautiful people in exotic locales, yet in a state of search and sufferance, undergoing the same travails as any one of us. While doing so, she discovers her own path to salvation, as she bravely resets the rules of femininity: To own up to ambition and a life-on-purpose is sexy!

The Pied Piper of joie de vivre' is how Bindu Dalmia christened herself. Mentored in the ' Shiv Nadar factory of mind-machines', as she calls it, she worked with HCL in its nascent years. She later chartered her course in living life on her own unconventional terms. The lessons she learned in practicality and of managing her estate and finances, led her to an avid and absorbing interest in keeping a pulse on the zeitgeist of the times, tracking with great interest the state of governance and economy. She writes as a guest for the Economic Times blog, a space that is offered by invitation to leading luminaries in economics, politics and judiciary and also writes occasionally as a guest for Mail Today's editorials, part of the India Today group. Through her writings she addresses varied issues about a world in transition, through the prism of a contemporary woman's worldview. This is her debut novel.