I have been reading this book called In the Key of Nira Ghani by Natasha Deen.

This book is about a brown girl Nira Ghani who moved to Canada from Guyana, and she
moved to a city where everyone is white, and she considers herself odd because she is
colored. She has always desired to become a musician but her parents have the
stereotypes that most brown parents typically have for their child/children which is to
become a scientist or a doctor. Nira’s grandmother and her best friend Emily are the
only people who support her in pursuing her dreams. When auditions for a jazz band are
announced Nira decides she has to convince her parents to let her do what she dreams
of doing and to join the jazz band. However, it’s not easy to achieve your goals when
your loved ones aren’t with you. Nira develops great friendships and finds love but the
hardships she had to face also build up along her journey. I loved the concept of the
book and how it showed how sometimes chasing your dreams can be hard due to the
cultural differences made in the society and how the school environment was like for
her because she was the only brown girl and thought she didn't fit in.

The question I would like to answer is as you were reading the book what text to text ,
text to self or text to world connection could you make?

As I was reading the novel I thought about my last days in India about to move to
Canada. I remember being so scared and nervous, I thought I would be considered weird
in the neighbourhood because I was coloured and everyone would judge me. I also
thought about how I would make friends and maybe even get bullied.
Nira’s story inspired me to find my own individuality but Canada has been amazing so
far and I was quite surprised to see it was a multicultural society.

This reminds me of the book called Katy Perry: A biography, in the book it shared how
Katy’s parents were so strict about her getting into singing and her mom thought she
had lost her way to God. I believe it is connected to this book because Nira is struggling
with social issues but if she at least had her parent’s support she would find her
confidence because sometimes our parents words mean a lot to us.

Nira’s parents were the negative characters in her life for the most part but she didn’t
give up and encouraged herself to achieve her goals. This is like I heard something on
the news, this 18 year old girl had big dreams of becoming a doctor and self
independent but she suicides because her parents forced her to get married and
physically abused her. It hit her as sharp as a knife.Why would parents hurt their own
children? The fact is Nira did not give up but she did.