yeah it kind of became your oasis right a place where you can escape to physically as well as mentally and emotionally

yeah exactly and it was it was magical right it really really was but it there was a component of it that was unrelatable right i was i was very much immersed into these these these stories and it was kind of it was entertainment it was um you know something that kept my mind stimulated but at the same time couldn't fully relate right the the children in these books their the way they lived their lifestyles their communications with their parents their their meal times didn't look like anything i comprehended and so there was still a little bit of disconnect where i was didn't quite belong there either and so i think over time that led to and i i wrote stories and such from there i suppose but over time it became this this apparent gap you know there's this component of like how we are on there and who we need to be when we're within our family dynamic or family like inner network and then when you go to school when you go to work and there's a lot of non-Indian people around people often become an entire like not entirely different but have different qualities and that kind of heartbreaking if you think about it because then that means that you don't feel that one part of yourself can fit into another and the other can't fit into this and so you're really not able or allowing yourself to become a single unified person um and so that's where i think especially in adults it's also very uh confusing but imagine that as a child right a child's mind and feeling like well, one day I can follow all these names and everybody supports it.

But at school, I kind of feel like I should, it's not as, as welcomed or accepted.

It's not as normal, right? Normal is a big thing when you're a child.

So, so that's where it came from.

I think just realizing that the ability to normalize a lot of this for children, even if it's something as simple, super simple as a storybook, but that in their minds can go So far, it could even impact them in adult life and make them feel more comfortable being who they are at home, at Monday, at work, at professional situations, whatever it might be.

So tell me a little bit about this first book, like what inspired it and what was the message you were hoping to give to the readers or I guess the kids?

I have a lot of children in my life, right? When I was first starting to think about writing this, I have nieces, I have nephews.