From Anne Hathaway’s Pick To Vikas Khanna’s Dinner: Monica Saigal’s Forthcoming Book

From Anne Hathaway being spotted holding Monica Saigal’s previous book, A Kiss in Kashmir—a captivating story of late-blooming love—to Chef and filmmaker Vikas Khanna hosting an intimate dinner in honor of her forthcoming book, The Lotus Blooms Twice: Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption (Indie Press), on September 14, 2026, Monica Saigal has been exploring the challenges and choices women face at different stages of life—from love, relationships and marriage to loss, change and starting over.

Her stories also explore female friendship, caregiving, grief, memory, desire, and the powerful role food can play in connecting us to one another and to the lives we have lived.

The Lotus Blooms Twice is a collection of fourteen short stories and a bonus novella about people confronting moments when the lives they know no longer fit quite as neatly as they once did.

The women in these stories are not beginning life. They have already lived, loved, raised families, cared for others, made mistakes, experienced loss and learned that the choices we make are rarely as simple as they appear from the outside.

Some are reckoning with betrayal. Some with grief. Some with desire they did not expect to feel again. Some are caring for people they love while confronting difficult truths about themselves. Others find themselves faced with the question that can arrive at any age: What now? For Saigal, that question lies at the heart of The Lotus Blooms Twice.

Rather than offering reinvention as an easy answer, the collection reflects on what it means to continue becoming ourselves as we grow older. What do we carry forward? What do we leave behind? What happens to love after disappointment? And what might still surprise us when we believe we already know the shape of our lives?

These questions have particular resonance for Saigal, whose own life and work have been shaped by unexpected turns.

“I’ve kept building a life and career through loss, single parenthood, professional changes and all the unexpected turns life brings,” she says. “And this chapter has been wonderfully full. At fourteen books in, I’m still telling stories, still finding new audiences and, fittingly, still blooming.”

Today, Saigal works as a culinary ambassador with Aramark, creating cultural food experiences on college campuses, and as a brand ambassador for Laxmi. Her food reels have reached millions of viewers, continuing a career in which food, storytelling, culture and human connection have remained closely intertwined.

Fourteen unforgettable stories plus a bonus novella about ordinary people discovering that even after heartbreak, life can bloom with hope, connection, and unexpected joy.

The Lotus Blooms Twice: Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption explores the challenges, choices, and transformations women experience at different stages of life—from love, relationships, and marriage to loss, change, and the courage to begin again.

Book excerpt Pg 155 to 158

Sabina Kar was on top of the world. Her face glimmered on luxury billboards, her voice rolled through award shows, and stylists from Mumbai to Milan debated whether her saree pleats should lean classical or avant-garde. The girl who once shared a single ceiling fan with three siblings in Andheri had become a woman adored by the world, hunted by headlines.And tonight was extra special. It welcomed her to the stratosphere.

The Global Indian Icon of the Year trophy settled into her palm, while flashbulbs burst like impatient fireworks. Sequins on her midnight-blue saree glittered, scattering constellations across the auditorium walls. She was radiant and her face glowed.Just as she stepped offstage, she spotted him. Vikrant. He stood near the exit in a simple white kurta, applauding as he smiled. As she watched, he turned around and left.

At first, she was stunned. She had not heard a word from him in years. He had faded into the night. She wanted to find out if he had gone back to singing but her schedule was so busy that thoughts simply never turned to action. Tonight, he had not looked devastated. Or alone and forlorn, as she might have expected. Instead, he looked, well, content.Backstage, everyone swirled in a champagne blur.

Crystal flutes chimed, her agent pressed a Tokyo itinerary into her free hand, a publicist whispered about Vogue Asia. Sabina stopped in her tracks. There, at the edge of her vision, was Arti. So, the rumors had been correct. The woman was the chief saboteur of her marriage seated at a large table. Now that she was on the top of the world, it was the perfect time for the confrontation she'd never had.

She strode across the room.“Well, well,” she said. “The headmistress. The woman Vikrant traded our amazing and loving life for.”Arti looked up, surprise flitting across her face before it cooled to calm. “Sabina, this is your celebration. Enjoy it, then go home. And stop talking nonsense.”Sabina tilted her head. “From the photos I expected someone… different,” she said lightly. “You’re… well, underwhelming.”Arti released an incredulous laugh. “You truly cannot see, can you? You are only ever there for yourself and no one else. And Vikrant?” She nodded toward the ballroom.

“He actually clapped when you got your damn trophy.”Sabina bristled. “You are an adulteress. He was a cheating bastard. If he wants to bring his sorry ass here to watch me win, he can. Cheating is cheating.”“He never cheated,” Arti replied, voice low yet unwavering. “Not with me. Not with anyone.”“Why are you lying for him? That is how men win. Women cannot support each other.”“Sabina, please. Tell me, did you ever verify the rumors? Did you ask your conniving agent if she knew where the rumors were coming from? No. You believed what freed you. You needed an excuse to walk away, so you crowned him guilty and never looked back.”A murmur spread through the crowd. Arti’s voice was soon joined by other stars, models, the junior staff Sabina had once dismissed as invisible. “He was linked to me as well. He never touched me.”

Then another. “Nor me.”The trophy in Sabina’s hand dragged heavier, as though it, too, accused her. Had she really never checked, never questioned? No, she never cared to. She had swallowed whatever she had read or been told.Arti said, “He let you believe the worst because you needed a villain. And you were too proud, too hungry for escape, to see the truth — that the only betrayer in your marriage was you.Vikrant Bharat Bhargav,” Arti continued, “was revered among us — the junior staff, as you called us — precisely because he remained faithful. And so, you’re clear, he is not here for you tonight.

Not by a long shot.”“What do you mean?” Sabina’s voice wavered. “I saw him. He was in the crowd.”“Arti, are you ready?”Sabina turned toward a melodic voice cutting through the hum.Vikrant stood at the doorway, his gaze fixed only on Arti. He stepped toward her, his arms sliding around her shoulders with certainty.Then Sabina saw it. The mangalsutra. He was married to her. Then she noticed the swell of Arti’s belly. Wife. Mother-to-be.He did not spare Sabina a glance. He simply left with his wife.