Nitasha wants to work but her father tells her to focus on her studies, while her mother tells her "Young girls don't go to work." However, Shaan worked in high school.
Nitasha and her family attend Arya Samaj every Sunday. Nitasha knows it is not good to drink at a religious ceremony but she gets small bottles of alcohol from her friend Ava's house. The havan or ritual is led by Nitasha's paternal grandmother. She lived with Nitasha's family but left when Nitasha was four-years-old after a fight with her mother. At this week's havan, Nitasha meets Nick whom she's known all her life. He was Nitasha's first and only boyfriend and her first and only kiss. However when her father found a love letter she wrote Nick, he took her for a drive and emphatically reminded her no boyfriends, and no love letters. But Nitasha is determined they will not choose her husband. There is much Nitasha doesn't understand including arranged marriages, calculus, Hinduism. But she does like Arya Samja.
Nitasha is worried because she doesn't have a date for homecoming. Her best friend, Ava has had many boyfriends. She's going to homecoming with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Dylan. Nitasha wishes her mom was like Ava's mom who lets her do what she wants. But Ava doesn't really know Nitasha, that she wishes she was "hot. Blonde, Skinny, tall, pretty." Nitasha asks Ava to help her dye her hair blonde.
After an confrontation with her mother over her phone, Nitasha cuts herself. She lies to her parents, telling them she's tutoring Ava in AP Chemistry. Instead, they go to Ava's new friend Chloe's home where they do a makeover of Nitasha, dyeing her hair blonde. Chloe and Ava discuss losing their virginity, but Nitasha isn't interested in this aspect of Henry, a boy she likes. She tells Ava and Chloe "there's so much more to him."
At the party at Jack's house, Nitasha drinks so many shots of tequila that she is sick and at the Samja the next day doesn't feel well. While talking with Nick outside the Samja, Nitasha reveals that her grandma hates her mother therefore her and that although she loves her dad, he doesn't stand up to his mother.
In Nitasha's ceramics class, her teachers notices Nitasha's cuts on her arms. She asks if Nitasha is alright but Nitasha makes the excuse that she cut herself on the laundry basket. The teacher reminds Nitasha that she is always welcome to come to the art room during lunch hour. During lunch, Henry who just flirted with another girl, approaches Nitasha to ask her to help tutor him in biology. He flirts with her too. What Nitasha doesn't realize is that Henry likes Chloe.
That night while Ava is over, Nitasha learns that Henry has asked Chloe to homecoming. This devastates Nitasha especially when she realizes that her friend knew Henry was not really interested in her. This situation leads to Nitasha drinking and cutting.
Nick's family comes over for dinner and while their parents gossip, Nick and Nitasha talk about her missing homecoming. When they kiss, Nick realizes that Nitasha has been drinking and questions her. Nick's father has been in recovery for six years and he's concerned that Nitasha is drinking alone. She reveals that she was sad because of what happened between her and Ava, and Chloe and Henry. Just then Nitasha gets a text from Ava asking her to come to the afterparty.
The afterparty turns into a disaster for Nitasha, leading to devastating consequences. Nick and Nitasha attend the afterparty at Henry's home. However to do so, Nitasha lies to her mom, telling her they are going to get Froyo. Nick says they might check out the new Hindi movie afterwards. They arrive at the afterparty and dance together. Ava comes over and apologizes to Nitasha and the two girls begin drinking shots. After doing four shots Nitasha wants to dance but Nick wants to leave. Ava promises to get Nitasha home safely and Nick leaves. With Nick gone, Nitasha takes Henry upstairs but he's not really interested in what she has in mind. Very drunk, Nitasha begins undressing and dancing on his bed. It is at this point that Chloe enters the room and is furious. She takes a video of Nitasha dancing on the bed and leaves vowing to get revenge.
The next morning at Ava's house, Nitasha is sick and gets and angry phone call from her parents telling her to come home immediately. Ava tells Nitasha that Henry is worried about her and that Chloe is furious at finding her with Henry. While they talk, Ava discovers that Nitasha is cutting herself and questions her as to why she does this. Ava asks Nitasha why as best friends, she's been lying to her. She begs Nitasha to stop hurting herself and Nitasha promises to stop if she won't tell anyone.
At home, Nitasha's family is angry with her as they had no idea where she was. Her father brings her something to eat and tells her "This is not how Indian girls behave." When Nitasha argues with him, he tells her that she can't behave like American girls.
At school, things quickly unravel for Nitasha. When she goes to apologize to Chloe, she angrily tells Nitasha, "I'm going to make sure you go down for this." Chloe posts the video she took of Nitasha in Henry's room and it quickly garners millions of views. When Ava expresses surprise at Chloe, she responds, "Who cares? She has cuts on her arms and thighs that you can't see on the video. She's legit psycho." Nick picks Nitasha up from school and expresses remorse about leaving her there but he explains that because of his father's alcoholism, he can't be around alcohol like that.
Twenty-four hours later, Shaan has seen the video and angrily confronts Nitasha. He tells her this can have consequences far into the future for her as colleges Google applicants. Soon the consequences spiral out of control as the video spreads. There is a magazine feature with the video about teens and drinking. Nitasha's parents learn of the video and are furious with her. Her Ama slaps her in the face and Shaan states that Karishma's parents have seen the video and want to break off the engagement. Ama ji screams that Nitasha's parents are at fault for giving birth to her and she tells them they are no longer welcome at her Samaj. Then Nitasha's father disowns her and her mother cries that she has ruined their name. In an act of utter despair and wanting to feel nother, Nitasha cuts, drinks and then overdoses on pills.
But this desperate act opens the door to self-discovery, revelation and healing both for Nitasha, her mother and others in their South Asian community.
Discusion
Fitting Indian is a graphic novel that explores the struggles first generation Indian-Americans encounter growing up and how parental and cultural expectations can sometimes be overwhelming. The author, Jyoti Chand states in her Acknowledgements that many of the events in the novel were inspired by her own life events. She "deeply struggled" with her mental health as a teenager and eventually was able to also overcome issues with acohol consumption. Chand writes that although this is Nitasha's story "...it's also familiar to so many of us-young South Asian women who were put into a box too early in life and told how life should play out. Many of us struggled and still struggle silently, and some of us were lucky enough to have second chances to live a more fulfilling life."
Nitasha Gupta is a first generation East Indian teen girl who struggles under the weight of her cultural expectations. "Good Indian girls" do not work, they do not have boyfriends, and especially do not write love letters. However, it seems the same expectations are not placed on her brother Shaan who was allowed to work in high school. This cultural expectation likely revolves around the East Asian culture of arranged marriages in which families scout for good marriage prospects for their daughters and sons. A girl who works or has had boyfriends may be considered difficult or unsuitable as a prospective bride and there are many expectations placed on young Asian women. However, Nitasha doesn't want her parents to choose her husband. She wants to make her own choice. She wants to date, to attend homecoming, prom and have a boyfriend.
Nitasha is also dealing with parental expectations. She loves her ceramics class and wants to be an artist but her parents envision her going to medical school to become a doctor like her older brother Shaan. These expectations place enormous stress on Nitasha at a time when she is struggling to understand herself and determine what she wants in life as she enters adulthood. These pressures lead to Nitasha drinking and to cutting as ways to deal with her pain and her lack of voice. She is pushed over the edge when a video of her intoxicated and partially undressed goes viral, causing her embarrassment and shame for her parents.
Through the character of Dr. Baizley, Jyoti Chand offers some perspective on mental illness in the Asian community. She points out to Nitasha that there is a stigma around mental health issues in some cultures, in this case Asian and South Asian communities. Nitasha points out that her aunt is bipolar but that no one in her family acknowledges her illness nor talks about it. And as Nitasha journeys through counselling and group therapy it is revealed that Nitasha's mother also attempted to take her own life many years earlier. No one spoke about what happened, the silence and secrecy influencing the Gupta family dynamics. The unresolved issues led to continued conflict between Nitasha's mother Sunita and her mother-in-law that eventually began to affect Nitasha as well.
When Nitasha and Shaan's father is hospitalized with high blood pressure, Shaan reveals that he found their mother when he was fourteen years old. He tells Nitasha, "The only thing I kept thinking was that she didn't love me anymore. Like, why would she do that if she loved me?" However, when he found Nitasha, he has realized that it has nothing to do with him but that his mother was in pain.
Nitasha's struggles lead her to confront her family's attitudes towards mental illness but also those of the her South Asian community. With the help of Shaan's fiance Karishma, Nitasha arranges for one of Karishma's friends, who is a therapist to begin offering group therapy at their Samaj. Nitasha stands up to her grandmother who doesn't want this to happen.
The novel ends on a very upbeat, happy tone. Karishma's family allows the engagement to Shaan to proceed. Nitasha's parents both stand up to Ama jji. Her father sees the letter Nitasha wrote him and realizes that he has been very harsh with his daughter. He stands up to his mother, protecting both Sunita and Nitasha.Nitasha comes to recognize that her parents really do love her. Nitasha does receive an apology from Chloe for what she did. Nitasha tells Chloe she hopes she's learned her lesson. Readers learn that Chloe was bullied at her last school and in an effort to fit in at Nitasha's school she herself became a bully. Although Henry asks her to prom, Nitasha takes the lead and asks Nick.
Chand uses the motif of the lotus flower to show how Nitasha is like the lotus. Her mother explains "A lotus lives in the murkiest waters yet remains clean and beautiful. It is always pure regardless of what comes its way. The lotus flower always rises above." She reminds Nitasha, "I want you to remember that, no matter how muddy things get around you, be like the lotus and keep reemerging more beautiful each and every time." This is a message all readers can take to heart in times of struggle.
Book Details:
Fitting Indian by Jyoti Chand
New York: Harper Alley 2025
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