A Hardik Pandya/Shubman Gill Fan Fiction

~Storytime with the author~

So a little story about me and why I'm writing this book... Being born and brought up in the US, you might think, makes people shift away from the Indian culture, however living away from home in the past 17 years has actually evoked so much passion and enthusiasm in me for India and such immense pride at being an Indian.

The festivals, the language, the colors, the food; it's endless! Almost ineffable.

My family and I only ever get to go once a year to India during the summer, usually in July.

Every time I go there it's like I'm entering a new world; such different roads, people, their habits and of course all the beautiful views, (quite sadly interrupted by the horrendous noise pollution though!)

I see my cousins, friends who are settled there and they have such different personalities! All of them try to be very westernised and where all the 'in' clothes that are trending etc, and that fascinates me.

While I buy only Indian traditional clothes every time I go to a mall in Mumbai, my besties slip into the most western looking shop and buy clothes out of their comfort zone, hoping their mum won't kill them for buying it without her opinion. While I try to be very Indian, and speak as much Hindi as I can (a little inaccurately at times) - my cousins try to be very American and I'm like why?

You may realise by now that my girl, Natasha's life is exactly the type of life I see teenagers my age having, slightly scared of her mum, timidly buying revealing clothing just for her boyfriend. Natasha is in fact the epitome of a 'Bhartiya Naari', a personality that I find so fresh and unique. None of the fan fictions about these cricketers have such a simple character who has a middle class life, or is just a girl next door, which is the main reason why I decided to go for her.

My other book, the Jasprit Bumrah fanfic has Shanaya as the female protagonist, who although belongs to a rich household, has to deal with pressures of belonging to a family of affluence. I think that writing realistically is something which a lot of people don't realise is so simplistic and so effective in conveying an emotion that really resonates with readers.

There are a very few fan fictions where I can go "Ah, that's so relatable!" And I noticed a lot of you picking that up with Natasha's character, which I'm glad to have done.

I am so jealous of life in India where I see people my age bunking college, enjoying their teen years while I on the other hand, become more and more depressed as the end of my holiday lurks, feeling sorrow at the limited number of days I have left in India before traveling back to US, my home.

Therefore, Natasha can perhaps be insinuated as the person who's life I aspire to have. You won't understand my readers living in India, how JEALOUS I am of you. I would do anything to move and settle back down in my country. Yeah, New York's cool - but it's not my home. I just want to be in our country. Hopefully one day those painful goodbyes, tears and heavy hearts at the airport once a year will disappear from my life and I can live in India, officially calling it my home and my identity.

Jai Hind 🇮🇳

~ from a very proud Indian x

Thanks for taking the time to read this if you did, but it's completely okay if you were like nah don't have no time for her lectures and skipped this chapter. It's just a really beautiful thing I wished to convey to you all as it's been on my mind a lot and I feel like it's been messing with my mental health a little as I've just come back like 3 days ago from India and I'm VERY homesick. It's a hard time leaving my mum's whole family there, so she's been sad too. Ughhh school tomorrow. What's happening in your life, gorgeous readers?