"If You Sing like That for Me," a short story by the young Indian American writer Akhil Sharma, first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in May, 1995, when Sharma was just 24 years old. It was featured in The Best American Short Stories of 1996 and was awarded an O. Henry award that same year, marking Sharma as a young writer to watch.

Told in the first person by Anita, a young Hindu woman living in the suburban areas of New Delhi between 1966 and 1977, during the time when Indira Gandhi was prime minister, it is a story that explores the rather classic theme of the evolution of a character from a naive idealist to a realist. Anita's family arranges for her to marry Rajinder, a young banker from a family of farmers. Anita is secretly opposed to the marriage, but nevertheless, simply because she cannot think of a valid reason not to, she accepts. The story chronicles Anita's initial feeling of panic at being married to a stranger, her feelings of jealousy towards her younger, more ambitious sister, and the conditional love she and her parents reciprocate—a relationship that is characterized by artificiality and resentment, ultimately affecting Anita's fundamental ability to love herself.

As time goes by, Anita's anxiety and terror at the thought of her marriage subsides, and she slowly learns to accept Rajinder, until suddenly, one evening, she awakens to both an oncoming monsoon and an overwhelming feeling of being in love. However, when she attempts to act on this feeling of love she realizes, through Rajinder's pragmatic and stoic reaction to her, that her idea of love is based on artificiality and idealism and does not reflect the reality of her life.