My very shy Punjabi father never taught me about the birds and bees. So shy was he that he may have thought he would get arrested for even talking about it.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
What a kid I got, I told him about the birds and the bee and he told me about the butcher and my wife.
Here's a trick to giving the birds-and-bees talk: You gotta do it in a car, so they can't escape. That's what all my girlfriends' parents did.
As a Punjabi, you only have to look at your own family's past to find horror stories about arranged marriages and brutality.
My father was a painter and he taught art. He once said to me, 'I never knew an Indian child who could not draw.'
My father was an obsessive bird-watcher. The genes of observation passed down.
People are often shy to acknowledge that they are Bengalis. They somehow take pride in saying that they cannot speak or read the language.
The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing.
I've never turned into a bee - I've never been chased by a mummy or met a ghost. But many of the ideas in my books are suggested by real life.
My father always taught me to never be quiet. That's the good thing about a Bengali household.
My father always said, 'Malala will be free as a bird.'