Z is for Zoya Singh Solanki

Though Z is the last letter of the alphabet this is the first post I wrote for this series only because I completely love Zoya Singh Solanki.

It was love at first read. If you haven’t bumped into her go pick up a copy of The Zoya Factor by Anuja Singh Chauhan – one of the best ever chicklits I’ve read. If you’re a self-respecting, cricketer loving Indian girl, I guarantee you’ll love the book and of course Zoya. Even if you’re not, you might find yourself laughing out loud as you read this one. I know because I did.

Zoya works for an advertising agency and the general consensus about her appearance is that she’s ‘cute’.  She’s got a mane of curly black hair down to her back and that’s about the only redeeming factor of her appearance, according to her self-critical eye. However it’s the ‘cuteness’ that stands out. Her boss puts is pretty succinctly when he says, “Looking at your cheeks makes my thumb and index finger sort of spasm – I want to squeeze em and squeeze em and squeeze em till they pop.” Her brother has nicknamed her ‘gaalu’ (loosely meaning ‘cheeks’)

You get the picture?

She’s not too happy with this description though, as she says, “it’s okay when you’re a moppet in red corduroy dungarees…. Not so good when you’re a working woman… twenty-seven years old to boot”. People should be more interested in squeezing your butt by then, she feels.

Zoya was born on 25^th June 1983 at the exact time that India lifted the cricket world cup. Whenever she backs a cricket team it always wins, always – or so it’s widely believed. It’s time for next world cup. The media is going wild promoting her as the team’s lucky mascot and the Indian Board for Cricket insists she accompany the team to Australia for the matches but the captain of the Indian team doesn’t quite like the idea. And that’s where the fun begins.

I love her because..

• She’s the cutest, funniest most down to earth heroine with a bundle of imperfections that make her ever more endearing. She obsesses about being cool, moreso because she lives in the most uncool part of Delhi – Karol Bagh and she loves it too.
• She thinks in Hinglsih.
• She is movie-star hungry. Her heart beats for SRK (Just like mine) and she’s not beyond enjoying a glimpse of his ‘toasty brown midriff’.
• She doesn’t notice cars. The best description she can come up with is (it was silver-coloured and longish-looking. That’s me! me! me!) And this was what she thought was SRK’s car.
• She doesn’t know much about cricket but does notice that the captain has a ‘cute butt’.
• She’s a self-confessed fireworks freak – a result of firework boom on her birthday since India won the World Cup.

She’s totally adorable. I wish someone would hurry up and put her in a film.

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Linking up to ABC Wednesday for the letter Z.