By Devangshee Khemka, Grade 8
In the masterclass “Starting up and Adulting” led by 2024 Neev Book Award winner Andaleeb Wajid, we were able to get to know the author better, and discuss what to do with our life, our dreams, romance, and even briefly explored a sort of feminist perspective of our lives. We even got to have our very own The Henna Start-Up moment by being entrepreneurs for a good half an hour and pitching our ideas to the author and the rest of the class.
Firstly, we started by getting to know a little bit about the author. She has published 45+ novels which is honestly such a great feat to achieve, and writes in the genres of Romance and Horror, and has even gotten her book Asmara’s Summer adapted as an Amazon Prime show, Dil Dosti Dilemma. Andaleeb has attributed her mix of genres to her being a firm believer in the idea that “all romance turns into horror”.
Andaleeb shared that she usually doesn’t write books off on something in her life, instead, she uses each book to know more about herself as an individual: “Each book that I write makes me learn something new about myself”. In The Henna Start-Up, however, she tried exploring writing about a young girl, who is unapologetic about her identity and how much it contrasted with herself as an individual.
Then we started by getting to know her book The Henna Start Up better, and we explored themes of adulting, following your dreams, feminism, settling, and standing up for yourself. Andaleeb started off the discussion with a question, “When things don’t go your way, what do you do?” She gave us the example of Abir, who uses technology to get justice and stand up for her mother, even if her parents are strict and conservative.
An underlying theme from this masterclass was, to never settle: never settle if things aren’t going the way you want to, if you are being pushed over, or if expectations are set for you to act a certain way. Fight for your dreams, against injustice, and don’t be afraid to. We even explored a sort of feminine aspect of this, when she discussed how girls are expected to act a certain way in society. “Us girls are always taught to settle and to adjust or to not have expectations or ambitions from a very young age, however, I say, never settle,” said Andaleeb, in a powerful message to all young girls. The book makes us find the Abir inside of us and to “never settle”. We also discussed how situations like these where women and girls are taught to settle and adjust can even turn out to be generational, with examples of Abir’s mom who tries to make herself seem smaller and hide her talents, all just to please the men in the household, and Abir’s mom, unconsciously holding Abir back and trying to get Abir to be just like her. However, Abir refuses to do that, breaking generational cycles.
We ended the session with everyone pitching their mind-blowing start-up ideas, and watching a short snippet of Dil Dosti Dilemma. All in all, this session was not only an incredibly interactive one but also an inspirational one, with us learning how to follow our dreams and live life the way we want it.
