Shivani Paliwal, a teenage dancer from India, travels to Los Angeles to audition for a global pop group Now United. At the airport she runs into Bailey, a pop star auditioning to represent the Philippines, whom she immediately hates. While dealing w...
Quick Note: Thank you all for being very patient for this chapter, I appreciate you all :) I am glad I got to focus on the Hinani friendship this week and there will be plenty of Shivley moments in the next chapter so look forward to that! Also listen to the song "Place We Were Made" by Maisie Peters - the link is above :)
Hina opened the door to her room and she gestured for Shivani to take a seat on her bed as she opened her mini fridge to grab something.
Shivani sat down at the edge of Hina's bed. As she looked around the room, she was struck by how clean Hina's hotel room was. There were no clothes strewn on the floor, the hangers in hotel closet were actually being used, the suitcases were lined up in order of height, and there were no random piles of books or pictures or food.
Hina closed the fridge and walked over to Shivani, handing her a bottle of water. She smiled and sat down on a chair across from Shivani. Shivani took a long drink of water and sighed. "Thank you Hina. I know we don't really know each other that well, but thank you."
Hina smiled, a look of understanding settling on her face. "You are welcome. I have not talked to many people because English is hard, uh, for me. But you talked to me the first day, so I like you. I want to listen to your feelings."
For some reason even though Shivani and Hina had some communication barriers, they had a special connection almost immediately. Hina had seen Shivani in trouble and had helped her and now she was willing to listen. That was more than Shivani's friend Kinjal had even done so far. And somehow Hina trusted Shivani after they talked the first day. Sometimes friendship springs up with the most unexpected people.
Shivani smiled. "I just want you to know Hina that my English is not perfect either. I'm still learning, but yours is actually pretty good."
"Thank you. You know in my school we didn't learn in English so I had to teach myself by watching YouTube videos."
"Wow that's amazing! I'll bet that wasn't easy."
"English is so confusing! Like why is R-E-A-D pronounced REED sometimes and RED some other times? And why is L-E-A-D pronounced LEED and T-R-E-A-D pronounced TRED. And what does 'yeah no' mean? Do it mean yes or does it mean no?"
Shivani laughed. "I know! Sometimes the rules feel so random?"
"And who decided that English needs to be the official language of communication? Why isn't Japanese or - wait, what language do you speak in India?"
"So in India almost every state speaks a different language like some people speak Malayalam or Gujarati or Punjabi or Tamil or Odia. But the official languages are English or Hindi and most people are taught English in schools."
"Wow. In Japan the official language is Japanese, but there are many dialects is that true with all these languages in India too?"
"Yup. And it's interesting that knowing English is seen as an important skill for success. In India it's because the British colonized India for so long and imposed their way of life on the country while enslaving and looting the people. Even though they left, the marks of colonialism have stayed deeply rooted."
"You know what's interesting?"
"What?"
Hina smiled uncomfortably. "You taught me more about India in this conversation than I knew my whole life. And it's a country of almost 2 billion people and kind of close to Japan!"
Shivani nodded, "Honestly I'm so happy to be a part of Now United because there's so much about the world I don't know and so many global perspectives I've never had to consider."
"Wait what does 'perspective' mean?"
"It basically means view point. So the idea that you have had a different life so your understanding of the world is different than mine and mine is different than yours."
Hina smiled, "Thank you! I am usually scared to ask people for help understanding English. You know at the airport I was talking on the phone to my mom in Japanese in line for food and this man tapped my shoulder and told me to speak in English because I am in America."
"Is that a rule in America? You have to speak English at the airport?"
Hina shook her head. "I was so confused and I have never traveled out of Japan so I did not know what to say. So I said sorry and he said I should be sorry and to go back to my own country. I still did not understand and then he started yelling at me."
"Oh my god. Were you all alone? Did anyone help?"
Hina nodded, "Thankfully these strangers came up to me and talked to the man. I could not understand a lot of what they said but one of the strangers gave me hug and explained in Japanese the situation. She told me that some people in America are worried about people from other countries taking their over 'their land' and changing American culture. She told me that not everyone in America is like that, but sometimes people wearing a certain bright red hat have been convinced that their lives are bad because of people from other countries."
"Did anyone report the man? Did he get in trouble?"
Hina shook her head. "Nothing happened, but another stranger was recording this event and she told me she would post it so people could see the hate and this man's racist talk."
"You know I always thought America didn't have these problems. In school we were taught that America is the 'land of immigrants' and that everyone can achieve anything if they work hard enough."
Hina nodded, "I know what you mean. But I think no country is perfect."
Shivani laughed, "I am starting to figure that out." She paused before saying, "Hina?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you want to maybe figure out America together?"
Hina laughed. "I need all the help I can get."
Shivani smiled and realized she was feeling much better. Somehow, for the first time that week, Shivani finally felt like someone really understood how lost and alone she felt.
"Now I want to hear about what happened before if you want to talk about it."
Shivani nodded. "Actually yeah, I could use your advice. I'm sort of clueless about boys."
Hina smiled, "I think I can help you out with that!"
For the rest of the night, Shivani and Hina stayed up talking and Shivani finally felt brave enough to talk to Bailey about the kiss. She was going to talk to Bailey tomorrow and tell him how she felt.
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