New Delhi: There. Right between those skyscrapers of text-books. Who did you spot?
An alien? A human? A geek? That's Opal Mehta.
Opal is the latest Bridget Jones who has popped out of first-time author Kaavya Vishwanathan's head.
There is a strong possibility that you may have heard this story before but here is how it goes anyway.
It is the tale of a young girl who's only occupation is to cram brain-twisting Physics like there is no tomorrow.
Her only stress buster - chanting Prime Numbers.
Programmed to gatecrash Harvard at the age of 18, Opal has been conforming HOWGIH -- thats How-Opal-Will-Get-Into-Harvard for 17 long years.
Though Opal cultivated HOWGIH with utmost fanaticism, How-Opal-will-get-into-Harvard fails as a strategy as Harvard has some crazy demands, like "Well-rounded personalities".
So HOWGIH gives way to HOWGAL. For the uninitiated thats How-Opal-Will-Get-A-Life.
The fervour, the zeal, the passion, which Opal had earlier put into cramming the Fermeculi Formula is now re-routed into dissecting Louis Vuitton, Versace and Jessica Simpson's blink-and-you-will-miss dresses.
Before long, its raining men and Opal Mehta is kissed, goes wild and gets herself a life.
But as the geek gives way to the proverbial Blonde, confusion strikes.
Kaavya Vishwanathan's debut piece on Opal Mehta is your chick-lit of 2006.
It's believable, the wisecracks are still crisp and when this 17-year-old Harvard sophomore got a call from London based publishers Little Brown, she obviously fell down the chair.
Anyone would if they were offered $ 500,000 for a two book deal and an offer for film rights to boot.
Read the book as much for Kaavya as for Opal though and you would by the end of it sure like to know how Kaavya got picked up, got published and became rich-as-hell.
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