55 pages • 1 hour read
Sandhya MenonWhen Dimple Met Rishi
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Dimple Shah
Dimple Shah, one of the book’s protagonists, is an 18-year-old Indian American girl who is passionate about coding and web development. At the beginning of the novel, Dimple has just received her acceptance letter to Stanford University, and she attends Insomnia Con in San Francisco for the summer in hopes of meeting her idol, Jenny Lindt. Dimple is driven and determined when it comes to her education and career. She chafes against her parents’ expectations that she lead a traditional Indian life, especially when it comes to the idea of arranged marriage. Her relationship with her mother is especially difficult, and Dimple feels she’s disappointed her mother because she is headstrong and wants to carve her own path rather than follow tradition. At the beginning of the book, she’s sworn off makeup and boys and is focused on winning the grand prize at Insomnia Con to better her career opportunities.
Much of the book revolves around how Dimple’s relationship with Rishi Patel develops and how falling in love helps her change and grow. Through Rishi, Dimple comes to freshly understand and appreciate Indian tradition. She learns how traditions can support people in maintaining a connection with their ancestors and homeland. Frightened by her intense feelings for Rishi and scared of losing herself, Dimple ends their relationship. Ultimately, however, she gets back together with him, once she sees that she can build a relationship with Rishi in which they make their own choices rather than follow a path set by others.
Rishi Patel
Rishi Patel, the book’s other protagonist, is an immensely practical 18-year-old Indian American boy from a wealthy family. Rishi appears at the book’s outset to be the perfectly dutiful Indian firstborn son. Rishi is bilingual, having learned Hindi first before English. He is devoted to Indian tradition and wants to honor his parents’ wishes by marrying an Indian girl and raising children. He embraces the idea of arranged marriage and almost immediately pictures Dimple as an important feature of the future he desires. Rishi has plans to attend MIT in the fall even though he feels no passion for engineering. He goes to Insomnia Con solely to meet Dimple and please his parents. Though he is very practical, Rishi is also a romantic and longs for a fairy-tale love story that looks like his parents’.
Rishi is confident, kind, and artistically talented. Through Dimple, he learns the importance of following his passion. He has been drawing an original comic series featuring his Indian character Aditya since he was 15. However, he refuses to seriously pursue art out of fear of disappointing his parents and shirking his duty as the firstborn son. Through Dimple’s encouragement, Rishi realizes the importance of doing what he loves and, at the end of the novel, he reveals his love of comics to his parents. With their blessing, he decides to attend SFSU’s art program rather than MIT.
Ashish Patel
Ashish Patel, Rishi’s younger brother, has “been in a serious relationship with basketball since he was in elementary school” (18). A rising high school junior on the varsity basketball team, Ashish is extremely tall and often wears his basketball uniform as his regular clothing. Ashish often deviates from his parents’ wishes, causing friction both in the family and between the brothers. When Ashish visits Rishi at Insomnia Con, he surprises Rishi by selflessly dedicating hours to helping Dimple and Rishi practice their dance for the talent show. After hooking up with Celia Ramirez, Ashish develops strong feelings for her, and the two ultimately end up in a relationship. By the end of the novel, Ashish and Rishi come to a greater understanding of each other, and Rishi admits he’s always been envious of Ashish. Though Ashish initially is skeptical of Dimple and the arranged marriage, by the end of the novel he encourages Rishi to fight for his and Dimple’s relationship.
Celia Ramirez
Celia Ramirez, Dimple’s roommate at Insomnia Con, is one of the few other girls at the conference. Seventeen years old and half Dominican, Celia grew up in San Francisco and will be attending SFSU in the fall. Celia is glamorous and interested in both fashion and parties. Celia’s friendships with Evan, Hari, and Isabelle, whom Dimple and Rishi call “the Aberzombies,” leads to conflict in Celia’s and Dimple’s friendship. Celia admits she never fit in in high school, and later, in an apology to Dimple, Celia attributes her friendship with the Aberzombies to wanting a “high school do-over.” Celia has an on-and-off relationship with Evan, who mistreats her, but later gets together with Ashish when she realizes the depth of Ashish’s feelings for her.
