A few years ago, I was invited to judge a ‘Come as a Character’ competition at Symbiosis International School, and it was good fun. I encountered all kinds of characters, ranging from Matilda to Ebenezer Scrooge. I’ve now seen multiple schools that conduct similar activities; I’ve done so myself at my Writers’ Club.
Yet, for a while, I’ve been thinking about something that makes me rather uncomfortable.
Dozens of girls dress up as Harry Potter, Geronimo Stilton or Charlie Bucket.
But no boys dress up as Matilda or Thea Stilton or Katniss Everdeen.
This was brought into sharp focus recently, when a parent asked me for recommendations for a character for her son to dress up as. The idea of dressing him up as a female character seemed absurd to her. I wonder, would it have been as absurd to dress a daughter as a male character?
Today, on international women’s day, I find myself thinking about all this. I love female friendships in literature, and feisty, imaginative girls always win my heart.
And that brought me to a conversation I had with my Young Zubaan editor, soon after they sent me a contract for my book, Sisters at New Dawn.
I was curious. What makes the regular story of a pair of sisters something that a feminist press would champion? What makes it align with the ideas of a publisher like Zubaan?
There were so many things that my editor told me about – including how much she liked the protagonists. One of the central themes of the story is adoption, and narratives around adoption need to be normalized. Yet, as we spoke, she talked about how even something as simple as having a female protagonist at the centre is important.
I wondered about that, but I decided to mull over it at another time.
And recently, with everything I’ve been seeing around characters and associations we make with girls and boys, I found myself thinking about the whole conversation once more.
If I put aside my short stories, all my major books have girls at the centre. What better day to talk about them than today?
Sisters at New Dawn
The Clockwala's Clues
Published by an independent, feminist press, Sisters at New Dawn naturally comes to mind first. It’s the story of a pair of sisters who stand up for each other. They may bicker in private, but they’re a team, forever and always. I love them. I love the relationship they share and the way they look out for each other.
Yet, they aren’t the only powerful girls in the story. Aquila is another character I love for her courage, loyalty and determination.
The Clcokwala’s Clues is about another pair of girls – friends, not sisters. They’re just eight, but they know what they want and they’re determined to get it. They strike hard bargains, use their wits and work together to make things work in their favour!
The Prophecy of Rasphora
Today, I Am
Three girls against the big, bad world. Once more, this is the story of girls who trust and love one another so much that they are a team, a force to reckon with. Fierce Tara, storyteller Afreen and caregiver Vandana work together to fulfil a prophecy, save a land and build a life for themselves.
Megha can be anything she wants to be – a botanist, a cricketer, a drummer! How many girls do you think know that?
Adults make choices for children all the time, and I think it’s good to try to be aware of how our conditioning seeps in. What unconscious biases do you have that suddenly get noticed when someone casually says something that’s almost irrelevant? What do you think it will take for boys and girls to be comfortable dressing up as the other sex? Is this important at all?
I know that these are questions I will keep asking myself. And I’m glad of that.
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