Reader’s Response letter

Poonam Chaudari/ English/ 7/8/21

Letter 2 by Arnav Bansal

American As Paneer Pie

 “Himmat karke badha kadam, tere saath chalega har aadam”
-Lekha’s father
Dear Poonam ma’am

It was a pleasure knowing that you enjoyed my previous letter and that you and your family are
doing great. But alas today I return filled with cheese, sauce and a bit of oregano not to forget
topped with the classic Desi paneer. You must be wondering why is there paneer on the pizza but
not to work as today I will tell you about an exceptional book talking about the boundaries of being
American and Indian and much more too. While side by side entertaining you with pinches of
humour, knowing your busy schedule I will try to keep it crisp. But I hope you can find time out of
your busy schedule in order to read this book, as I am sure you will LOVE it!

Let's start of by a brief summary of this book. The creativity of the award-winning author Supriya
Kelkar inspired this unique gem of a book. This book’s realistically displayed events make it a
realistic fiction story. It is set in the current times, in houses and schools of a small town called Oak
ridge. The story's main characters include Lekha, Avantika and Noah. Our main character Lekha has
grown up in Oakridge where due to being brown she has never fit in. She is always looked down
upon and asked uncomfortable questions, but the worst part is it has affected Lekha greatly causing
her to not have the ability to fight for herself. But that start to change when a new Indian family
arrives in town with a girl called Avantika who is Lekha’s age. Due to Avantika’s childhood in India
she is strong and can stand up for her self. Avantika and Lekha are quick to become friends and go
on one to many adventures. However, everything changes when the campaign of don't like it!
Leave, skyrockets. Graffities, fights, questions and terrible incidents make Lekha question is she
really American. But not to fear as at the end of the story she emerges strong, bold and American as
paneer pie.

I am sure you liked the lovely plot of the book, but now I would elaborate on the genre and how I
determined it. I have come to believe that this book falls in the main category of fiction and to be
specific the subcategory of realistic fiction due to various reasons. Firstly, there is no indication that
the people talked about in the book (Lekha, Avantika, Noah, Senator Williams, Aai, etc) are real of
are portraying real people. Secondly, this book’s events are complete works of imagination and are
not based on any historical events, and even it is nowhere in the story is it signalled to the reader.
Thirdly, we can see that this book does not provide any information, give any facts or tries to
persuade us. Due to these three reasons, I strongly believe this book is strongly a piece of realistic
fiction.
Moving on to something much more important, the theme or in simple words what this book teaches
us. Through this wonderful book I heavy entertained, but I learned a lot about life too. 2 of the most
important learnings which I think our vital, considering today's modern world, to share with you
include:

● Another universal saying this book brings is that thinking on the positive side makes one
enjoy life’s opportunities instead of missing out on them. As the story states when Lekha has
been asked to present her op-ed in the town hall she is very hesitant as she ponders upon
the bad what ifs that can happen like: someone who differs from opinion can hurt her,
someone can shout at her, what if the person who graffitied their garage can come back to
do something worse, etc. But then Aai tells her that there an infinite number of these bad
what ifs, but it's for sure that if we keep thinking about them, we will miss out on the life’s
good what ifs such as what if her op-ed made senator Williams change her mind, what if
everyone got inspired by her op-ed, what if her op-ed could make a huge impact, etc.
Additionally, we also see that when Aai herself starts to ponder upon these what ifs after
Senator Williams gets elected she stops interacting with people and going out, and she
starts becoming upset and mentally unfit but when she stops pondering upon these what ifs
her situation improves, so we can conclude that thinking on the positive side makes one
enjoy life’s opportunities instead of missing out on them. This theme can definitely be
applied and definitely should be applied as I have noticed in my own life that I have missed
a lot of opportunities in my life that I could have not missed had I thought on a more positive
side and forgotten that bad what ifs.

● In order to be accepted, one does not need to change themselves and follow the unfair
boundary's society has kept”. As we see that the community in which Lekha lives in were not
accepting her unless she was eating, speaking and looking like them. This resulted in to
Lekha fearing that they would not accept her if she showed her Desi side in school and
divided her into home Lekha, a confident and bold person and a school Lekha a quite,
unconfident person. School Lekha only wore American clothes and ate only American food
and covered her bindi birthmark. But through the story Lekha learned that people would just
have to accept her the way she is and the personalities of home Lekha and School Lekha
collided. We also see this message when Lekha joins the swim team and her teammates
pressurize her into shaving her legs so that they could be aerodynamic and win the
swimming competition. In fear of being outlasted, Lekha almost shaves her legs but before
 going through with it, but then she remembers something more important that it would hurt
her mom as her mom had told her not to shave her legs. So Lekha tells her teammates that
they are just going to have to accept who she is and win using that. This can very well be
applied to our daily lives as these days using social media and various other superficial
things we try to change ourselves and fit in.

Well, these were the two amazing learnings I caught! They are nice aren't they, but these themes
would not have been there were it not for the social issue talked about in the book. Well now you
must be wondering what is the social issue. To find out, read on!

The social issue talked about in the book was cast stereotypes or in simple words stereotypes based
on which place you or your family come from and which nationality are you. As the text states Lekha
used to often be asked questions powered by stereotypes people of her community heard such as
“Where’s your dot?, Where are you from?, But where are you really from?, do you speak Indian?,
do you speak ‘Hindu’?, Where’s your accent?, How long have you lived here?, do all Indians know
each other?, and many-many more. These questions made Lekha feel negatively different and upset.
She was also became speechless in school whenever these kinds of questions were asked. She also
clearly mentioned all about these question and how she felt about them in her inspirational op-ed.

Well this letter is getting to big, and I don't want to get you mood down, so lastly I will just you the
symbols too make reading this book easier, I am already sure you are going to read it. A very
important symbol included paneer pie/pizza. Paneer pizza represented Lekha, the paneer
represented her Desi side and the pizza represented her American side. However, different paneer
and pizza are when they come together they form a tasty combination, as expressed by her close
friend Harper as when Harper eats it after she comes over post the storm. However, people are
reluctant to accept and try this combination due to its uniqueness. All of this is fully explained when
Lekha does her assignment on which food represents her the best.

Boy was that one long letter, but I am glad I was able to keep it smaller than my last one, keeping in
mind your busy schedule rather than my ideas that were tempting me to write even more. But overall
even before the analysis I would recommend it to all readers, of different ages and sizes as this
book has something to entertain and teach us all. With an engrossing plot, fascinating character and
deep learning, I would give this book an A grade and I hope that when you read it you will too,
ma’am!
Well ma’am my letter ends here, I will patiently wait for your response.
Regards Arnav Bansal