Losing My Identity
Rashmita Patel, 2014
New Generation Publishing
140 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781910394427
Summary
From Aloo Gobi to Matar Paneer, two sisters take the plunge to sort their love lives out when they both fall in love with a guy from a different culture. Kiran totally goes off the rails by leaving home to live with her so called boyfriend Ryan, but not all ends well when Kiran’s life turns sour with Ryan leaving her when she is pregnant and Kiran left to face the music.
Ash on the other end thinks she’s one who would never take the wrong path, ends up in a deep hole with a guy she meets up at college. At first Ash thinks he’s all wonderful until her parents find her a suitable rishta and she has to tell Rehaan that she can no longer keep their relationship going.
Her marriage to Aman is finalized and all is going as planned until Ash discovers that Aman her fiancé knows Rehaan. Again the awful nightmares begin for Ash as she starts to get freaked out about Rehaan shadowing her once more.
Ash finally gets the courage to tell Aman the truth about her relationship with Rehaan. The only thing left for Ash to do now is to see that her sister, Kiran who has helped her tremendously, attend her wedding but at the same time convince Mum and Dad that Kiran desperately needs their help and to bring her home once and for all. All ends well with Ash managing to score goals on all sides of the coin.
Author Bio
• Birth—May 10, 1971
• Where—Birmingham, England, UK
• Education—B.A., University of Central England
• Currently—lives in Birmingham, England
Rashmita's writing career began when she noticed that there was a gap in the market for Asian Teenage novels. She decided to write novels aiming at highlighting Asian characters.
Her first novel came out in 2006 called Tina 'n' Nikil—one sided-love which focused on arranged marriage. In 2008 she published her 2nd novel called Web of Lies: Priya Ki Kahani which looked at Asian Teenage Pregnancy, and her latest novel which came out in 2014 is called Losing My Identity which is based on mixed marriage and drugs. Rashmita is also a freelance journalist and school librarian. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Rashmita on Facebook.
Book Reviews
Losing My Identity is a gripping story about a conflicted young girl trying to fit her traditional values into a confusing, modern world. Passions run high in this dramatic yet believable tale. Complex and thought provoking, Losing My Identity will keep you hooked until the end.
Andrew Casey
Rashmita Patel’s Asian novels set to create waves. Rashmita Patel has had a love affair with books since her childhood. She wrote many short novels as a child and mastered the art of sticking and pasting pictures to make her books look real. Her dreams have started getting fulfilled and she has become a published author and appears on course of becoming a prolific novelist. She has already made her mark as a teenage fiction author. Rashmita Patel is doing a fabulous job and it seems a matter of time for her work to spread far and wide in the Asian communities all over the world. Her novels should also have considerable appeal in the massive South Asian market.
Jumbo Infomedia
I enjoyed reading your book aimed at teenagers. I think this book would attract a variety of teenage readers.
Prabha Patel, freelance educator, KS3 & KS4 teacher
Discussion Questions
1. How did Ash react when Kiri tells her that her boyfriend is white?
2. What did Ash mean when she said Kiri was Losing her Identity?
3. What was the family expecting from Kiri when she said she wanted to get married.
4. Why was Ash's mum and dad and brother all furious when Kiri mentioned that she was in love and wanted to get married to Robby?
5. Why was Ash unhappy when she picked up her exam results?
6. Why is Ash reluctant to go out with Rehaan when she falls in love with him?
7. What kind of a friend is Kelly from the way she behaves with Ash over her boyfriend?
8. What kind of life had Kiri had with Robby?
9. How do you think Ash must have felt when she finds out about Rehaan's involvement in drugs?
10. Why did Ash not tell anybody about Rehaan after finding out that he was involved in drugs?
11. Why do you think Ash told Aman about Rehaan?
13. Why did Ash want her family to forgive Kiri?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)