Bridge 2 Peer to Peer (Interview)

My mom has been called, like every second week from the school, oh now Muskaan has done this, and then she was like, can you just hang yourself, I do not have the energy anymore.

Today I’m sitting down with my classmate Muskaan Chaudhry to discuss her family and friends network. We go to McDonalds to have our interview. Muskaan is wearing a black hoodie and jean. Her hair is curly and some part of her hair is green. She has some kohl on her eyes. As we sit down, Muskaan opens us about the most important relationships in her life and how these influence her.

Xia: What is your nickname? Who gave it to you? What is the meaning behind the nickname?

Muskaan: My nickname actually, Musky, for some reason, and my mom gaveittomewhenIwasakid.Thereis not particularly a meaning to my nickname.

Xia: How about your name? What does you name mean in your language?

Muskaan: In Hindi, it literally means smile.

Xia: Have you changed your name before? Have you ever thought about changing your name to a new one?

Muskaan: Oh my god. So many names you don’t have an idea. I haven’t changed, ever. Because, I think I should get a different name maybe, like, that would be better, or easier, but in the end, I feel like Muskaan. I am never gonna change it. Coming here as well, you would think of better options. Like, oh at least people could pronounce my name, so maybe I would get a better name that is easier…but No. I would like to keep it, cause I feel

like Muskaan. If my name changes, I feel like my name will not reflect my personality.

Xia: Yeah. Sometimes, like me, I am just too lazy to change. But I have thought about lots of new names.

Muskaan: Oh. I have too.

Xia: Who do you take advice from? Muskaan: My best friends. And Bhavika, she is my roommate.
Bhavika (Sitting next to Xia and Muskaan, doing interview with Monica): She does not take my advice. Muskaan: I did.

Xia: What is the happiest moment you have had with your family or friends? Such as festival, birthday event.

Muskaan: We don’t celebrate a lot of festivals. Cause my dad passed away when I was six. So, we do not celebrate. Well we celebrate but it’s not a big ass thing. Otherwise, there are these times, actually I don’t have any particular occasion but there are times when you are sitting and you pause, and I know these people, they care about me. Maybe this is what happiness is supposed to be. You are in your sweat pants, with your entire family, sitting in one room and laughing about absolute shit. That’s it!

Xia: I can imagine, just sitting together, and reading a book or watching TV, even though it’s quite normal but…

Muskaan: Yeah! Even if you are just sitting together, watching TV, that one meal you order from a restaurant, you

just order in food, and everybody sits together, and like, oh let’s eat together today! Just sit together, let’s order a pizza, some Indian food and just sit and talk, talk about absolutely shit, but at the same time, it’s just the feeling of togetherness. That makes it so happy for us. It’s the same with your friends, when you are out, and there is this one time when you are like, you are going to a party with them, and instead of the party, you are on the way with them, and you feel so blessed to have friends like that. Because maybe it’s not occasion, or a particular thing, it’s just your path to there with them.

Xia: Do you have the same taste of clothes with your family members?

Muskaan: No.

Xia: So, what do your family members usually love to wear?

Muskaan: I have a big family but I am gonna talk about the Indian family that I lived with. There were a lot of girls in the house. I wear a lot of boyish clothes so I feel a lot of people don’t understand. I wear a lot of boyish cloth so my mom was constantly worried about why I dress like a boy. My entire family is like, they need the best brands and they need to be well-dressed all the time. I am not used to that. I go to parties in my sneakers, I don’t feel the urge to dress up unless I really feel like oh now I need to dress up. But they are like, constantly, they need to be well- dressed, they need to be looked like they are going out all the time, for some reason. I don’t get it. I’m like completely the opposite of my family.

Xia: Have you ever had a big argument with your family or friends? Why?

Muskaan: Of course I have. Everybody has. Some people just don’t open up about it. I have fights with my mom every second day over all kinds of bullshit. They just have to shout at me. You know? But It’s understandable. Indian family, they are well-respected, so every time I do something bad, I used to have arguments with them to the fact that I wanna do whatever I feel is spontaneous to my life, like I wanna do that at that moment, I do not want to regret anything in my life. I always say that.

Xia: What is the specific thing you want to do but your family don’t want you to do?

Muskaan: I don’t know. Like generally my family would not support my choices, like oh I am getting green hair, I am getting tattoos and so many ear piercings, I am doing all the stuff. But generally in my family they expect child to be well-behaved and well-dressed. So they are like, oh no you are supposed to be well-dressed and soft- spoken, but no! I am not soft-spoken, I talk really loud, I dress like a dude, and I have green hair and tattoos. What can you do about it? See? My mom has been called, like every second week from the school, oh now Muskaan has done this, she was like, can you just hang yourself, I do not have the energy anymore. But I feel like I am always a spontaneous kid like even if I am getting trouble for it, and I feel I need to do this, I do it. I do not worry about the fact that I am getting trouble with it.

Cause I need to try it. And my friends, we have arguments all the time but it’s never something serious. Which usually are like Oh my god, these are my socks. No, those are mine!

Xia: So just small things.

Muskaan: So just small stuff, like oh my god! you ate my chocolate! No! I did not eat your chocolate! That kind of things. You never take them seriously.

Xia: Who do the most cooking in your family? Are your family good at cooking?

Muskaan: My family is really good at cooking. They are Indians! They actually are really good about it, but we have a maid for everything, and I do not understand why you need to have a

person for cooking and have a person for the help. But usually it’s the maid who do all the cooking.

Xia: Who do the most of housework in your family?

Muskaan: If the maids weren’t there, probably it would be my mom. Cause she likes everything to be perfect, and mostly my mom and my grandma. If my grandma saw a chair was not on point, she’d walk to there and like no. It needs to be perfect.

Xia: So she is strict?

Muskaan: No, she is not strict, like I always mess up everything, but she just does not say anything, she just gets up and cleans it. She just makes everything impeccable.

Xia: Wow, that’s a good habit…

Muskaan: Ha-ha, it’s annoying though.

Xia: Sometimes I am just too lazy to clean things up.

Muskaan: which she never does. 5 am in the morning, my eyes open and she’s cleaning. She doesn’t sleep, okay?

Xia: Have you had a pet in your family?

Muskaan: Yeah, a dog. It was a black Labrador. My mom gave my dog away cause it grew too big. And I used to stay in boarding school, so most of time my mom had to look after it. My mom just gave him away, she was like you can keep a dog when you grow up, this is not happening in this house. Okay, mom, sorry! Hahaha. There are few

things you can’t trust your maid with. And a dog is supposed to be loved and stuff. You cannot act like that with a dog. I used to sleep with my dog, every time I used to leave for boarding school, I used to miss my dog more than my mom, and my mom used to turn around and go like oh thank god.

Xia: What is your favorite type of book? Do you like to share your books with your friends or family?

Muskaan: If it’s a really good book, I probably will. I don’t have preference in books, sometimes I read fiction, sometimes I read science fiction, sometimes non-fiction, it just depends the book’s story should captivate me, like oh I wanna read that. And the reason you want to read something is because some part of you can relate to

it. You get it? And even if you can not, you should be able to feel the book. Unless if you are not feeling the book, there is no point of reading it. I have been reading since I was 7, actually all kinds of book, everything. If I am reading a book, I get lost in my book. And every time I read a book, I cannot put it down, whether it’s good or bad, I need to know what’s happening. So if you see me taking a book, I probably just… read it all day. It’s really annoying, I read while I am eating, and everything. So I don’t have a preference of books, like, my friends just got back, like, oh you should really read this book! And I will probably even give you a copy, like read it! That’s good! You need to read it!

Xia: Could you tell me some books you have shared with your friends?

Muskaan: Me? Uh…I remember the old ones. Oh! Recently I read a book called More Happy or Not.

Xia: Is it an English book?

Muskaan: Yeah! It’s an English book. I don’t read any other languages of book. My Hindi is horrible! Believe me. It’s horrible. So this is a book by Adam Silvera, it was a fiction book about how his memory relief procedure. He had a really traumatic childhood, he finds out he is gay, and all the people around in his colony start booing him. And how many people and things he loses in that procedure. It’s a really good book, I though it was gonna be dumb and I started reading it but I got into it.

Xia: so is it about…

Muskaan: It’s about a boy, how he wants to forget his experiences because it was so traumatic, but instead, he ends up losing his memory. Finally, He only remembered the parts he wanted to forget. He could not make any new memories. He wanted to forget his past, and that’s the only memory he had.

Xia: That’s so sad!

Muskaan: It is sad. You can feel the

irony in the book when you read it. That’s really good. If you wanna read it, you should have a hardcopy. I am obsessed with books. I invest in books and music. And I have a copy and I highlighted the quotes that I really like. You can have a copy if you are interested in…

Xia: Yeah! I am interested in it! OK, after this interview, we can talk about it.

Muskaan: Yeah, I will tell you.