Love In the 21st Century

New Indian Express

11-07-2025

What happens when two ex-lovers, who once had a breakup because of their assumed incompatibility, meet each other through an AI-generated dating application called AILENA? Love has indeed found a new dimension in 21st-century India. Delhi author Stuti Changle's new book, Stars Will Guide You Home (HarperCollins), explores this phenomenon.
In her words, 'I have spoken to friends, readers, and colleagues, and they narrated their experiences on multiple dating applications in their quest to find relationships. Hence, I thought of writing a novel where the protagonists would rely on an app to meet each other,' she says.
Stars Will Guide You Home is a novel that dives deep into the complexities of human feelings. It offers an exploration of love that contrasts both timeless, traditional forms with contemporary expressions. Its protagonist Nirvaan is an IIT Delhi graduate. Nirvaan becomes a successful entrepreneur and comes back to Delhi to invest in a potential start-up at a funding event, and from that, his life starts taking a different shape.
Cities like Mumbai, Delhi, and New York are important settings in the book, as the lives and rhythms of these cities shape the characters. It also speaks about ambition, as Kiana, Nirvaan's girlfriend, who comes back to his life, primarily leaves him because of her career choices.
The book also talks about the connections that we make in our lives. 'In this fast-paced world, many have to leave the familiar. We try to make connections to replicate our homes in different cities. This book talks about how two people make their homes and they use every opportunity to build them.'
Nirvaan and Kiana are opposites in nature. Nirvaan comes from a middle-class Old Delhi family, whereas Kiana hails from an extremely ambitious family that wants her to get settled by marrying an NRI. What both characters have is resilience. Standing tall against all the headwinds that a middle-class family faces, Nirvaan joins IIT Delhi and becomes a successful entrepreneur, while Kiana resists her parents and their demands to get her married.
Changle's shelves are full of classic English novels. She takes inspiration from books and films she loves—Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man And The Sea, the film Fight Club, and the books of Ruskin Bond.
Changle has noted how romance between two people has been portrayed in the classics. 'For me, the idea of romance has always revolved around making an effort. Our classics teach us that. We now live in an age where romance can be perceived through sharing Reels. But the intent remains the same,' she says.