"I learned that I am, despite my early years spent as a swaggering boy, at heart just a middle-class, hard-working, risk-averse, un-creative, strait-laced, routine-obsessed conformist. In case I forgot to mention it, I'm also prudish to the point of being puritanical."

But at eight, Nira had only one over-powering wish-to pee standing up like a boy. In fact, to be a boy. Join Nira as she steps into her brother's clothes and becomes the self-appointed Al Caponesque gang leader of the neighbourhood boys. Her oddball yet madly loving family shapes her personality, and a poignant relationship with her brother's best friend shapes her life. She uses uninhibited candour to detail her coming-of-age journey from Calcutta to London, from tomboy to reluctant woman-in-progress always trying to fit in, but always failing. She's a laugh a minute, and yet she breaks your heart with her subconscious, percussive yearning for the one person who is always too old, too far, too married to be hers.

Sonia stumbled through school, forgot to attend college, and ended up in the best place in the world: writing ads in an advertising agency. Born and raised in Calcutta, she's lived and worked in Jakarta, Miami, Johannesburg, Brussels, and Singapore, making ads for everything from candy to condoms, while dreaming of changing them from 30-second spots to full-length feature films. She threw caution and her full-time job as Executive Creative Director, McCann-Erickson to the winds and embarked on her riveting, rejection-filled screenwriting journey in the US. Finally her day job entails writing movies. While Sonia has written advertising copy,book reviews, and magazine columns, she claims it's taken monumental audacity and epic courage to put her thoughts into a novel. Sonia lives, writes, and rewrites in Singapore and the three loves of her life remain her daughter's scorching tennis backhand, her dog's hunky good looks, and her husband's incredible friendship.