Today I would like to share my experience, not a review. From my perspective, this book is more than just a children’s book. It’s a story of passion, perseverance,  persistence, and patience.

Author Sandhya Acharya and I crossed paths when she started a Kickstarter Campaign last November, to bring her story 10 Gulab Jamuns to life through the crowdfunding platform. It is such a fascinating moment as I sat down to write a post about this book because precisely a year before I was writing a post talking about her previous book and then Kickstarter campaign “The 10 Gulab Jamuns”. A total rendezvous with myself one year later.

I was one of the backers, and I remember being nervous to see how the campaign would go. Unfortunately, her Kickstarter Campaign was not successful. That did not stop her from launching her book. She marched on, and here we are with the book  “10 Gulab Jamuns”!

I quickly ordered our copy, and it was a simple and fun read. A great bedtime story and at the same time not so great(pun intended!) as it pulls you in for some sugar cravings too!. I was reading 10 Gulab Jamuns to my son and my daughter, my son got up quickly and he started saying let’s eat gulab jamun now! At 9:00 PM in the night!. Oh well, this reminds me of our Gulab Jamun story.

Growing up, I was not a never a fan of Gulab Jamun. But my brother would scoop everything up in minutes. Fast forward till a week back. I never made gulab jamuns at home. But that has changed now.! One day a week after we got the 10 Gulab Jamuns book. My son said I want to eat Gulab Jamun! It was 7 PM in the night, and he demanded that it has to happen right now! I tried to go past by ignoring his demands, but my husband succumbed. Making it too dramatic? Why not? It was 7:00 pm in the night for goodness sakes! So both dad and son decided to go and get the ingredients. My husband started making while being cheered upon by his cheerleader son. I had to jump in as it required some skill set(Wink Wink!). So after few minutes, there they were, his yummy Gulab Jamuns!!. Parents!, heads up you might have a task added to your overfilling plate!. My son just loved it. He quickly gobbled 3-4 gulab jamuns, and after that, I had to stop him.

It was such a surprising moment for me because he never ate this Indian sweet. So I had to ask him. “You never ate Gulab Jamun what made you ask to make one”? He said, after reading 10 Gulab Jamuns I got curious on how it tastes!

Well, Sandhya Acharya, through your book, you are not only making kids read but also encouraging their taste buds to try something new!.

Support Sandhya by ordering her book at “10 Gulab Jamuns.”

Bio: Sandhya Acharya grew up in Mumbai, India, and now lives in Santa Clara, California. She has always loved eating Gulab Jamuns, though she must confess she may not be great at cooking them. She does love cooking stories though. When she is not writing, she is busy training for marathons, learning a form of Indian classical dance, and enjoying the childhood of her young sons. Her articles and stories have featured in publications like NPR(KQED), India Currents, IMC connect, Peacock Journal, and Aaduna. She won the third prize in Katha 2017, a short story contest by India Currents and Wellstone Center in the Redwoods. She also blogs regularly at www.sandhyaacharya.com.