“This is a book I read when I was very young. It is about an Indian girl who moved from Uganda to the UK. She was conflicted between the traditional Indian values she had at home and the values that she saw around her at her English school. The book is ultimately about her internal struggle to manage this conflict. As a teenage girl growing up in Hong Kong, I was in the same situation. I am Indian and I went to a predominantly white school. I always felt like I didn’t quite belong at home and didn’t quite belong at school. For me, this book showed me that there are others like me and that I’m not alone. When you’re young and there’s turbulence, it [feels] good to know that there are other people who feel the same way. This book validated the way I was feeling. It made me feel less guilty for feeling the way I did about my family and my values.” 

– Shalini Mahtani, founder, The Zubin Foundation