Adiba Jaigirdar > Quotes

“She’s inching forward.
Is there a heterosexual explanation for why she’s inching forward?”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“I've never really thought about having a type. I guess my type is....beautiful girl. Which is a lot of them. Most of them? Pretty much all girls.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“Sometimes I think that maybe I like guys more as a concept than a reality.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

“What I want more than anything else in the world is to feel like being myself isn't something that should be hidden and a secret. What I want is for my parents to be outraged that someone betrayed me, not ashamed of my identity.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“You made a mistake, and your Abba made a mistake too. It doesn’t make anybody the worst anything in the world. It just makes us human.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

“My point, dear sister, is that we all have people who we bend ourselves for the approval of. For you and me, it's Ammu and Abbu. For Hani, it's her friends. We all need to fit in, or need approval. You and Hani aren't that different, if you think about it.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

“Sometimes I think that maybe I like guys more as a concept than a reality. And girls more as a reality than a concept.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

“Right now, all men seem overwhelmingly unattractive - except the ones on the Netflix shows I watch.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

“This is one of those moments that I want to bottle up and keep with me forever. Not because it's extraordinary, or because it's the kind of thing you would find in a Bollywood movie.

But because it's the kind of moment I could never have dreamed of having in a million years.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“What I want more than anything else in the world is to feel like being myself isn’t something that should be hidden and a secret.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“I’m standing for … me. For you. For us, I guess.”

It doesn’t seem like much. But sometimes just being yourself—really, truly yourself—can be the most difficult thing to be”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“Ishu smiles, and my breath hitches at the sight of it. She smiles so rarely that each one – the genuine ones that light up her entire being – feels like a gift. Like something private she has only reserved for me.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

“I want to ask her again, why. Why is she friends with people who don’t let her be who she is? Who make her feel uncomfortable and embarrassed of who she is?”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

“It doesn’t seem like much. But sometimes just being yourself—really, truly yourself—can be the most difficult thing to be.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“Family is complicated, Hani. Everyone has a different relationship with their family.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

“Doctor, teacher, engineer, our Nishat could be anything she wants to be," Abbu says, clapping me on the back proudly. It's the most he's said to me in weeks, but there's a plasticity to his smile, a solemness to his voice. Nishat can be anything she wants to be, except herself.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“Because of course Muslims can be gay. How can anyone even think otherwise? The two aren’t mutually exclusive. I am living, breathing proof.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“Gathered up in her arms with the beat of Bollywood music all around me, everything feels strangely right. Like none
of the bad stuff even matters any more. Because as long as Hani and I are side-by-side, everything will be all right.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

“It’s like … heterophobia.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

“She smiles so rarely that each one—the genuine ones that light up her entire being—feels like a gift. Like something private she has only reserved for me.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

“I feel my stomach drop even though my little crush on Flávia is supposed I have disappeared. I guess it's not that simple to get over someone. I still have a thing for Taylor Swift, after all - even though I hate all of her white feminism nonsense.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“they won’t know that you were never winning for them—you were doing it for yourself.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

“I promise to love you the most, no matter what. Even when we’re old and disheveled and dying and you’re somehow more annoying than you already are, I’ll still love you.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“The thought of telling someone about this feels almost as bad as the fact that it happened.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“Can I at least talk about the racist British media attacking Meghan Markle?” I ask.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

“Aisling rolls her eyes again. “Why is this even a thing? Everyone knows that you’re going to be with a guy at the end of the day, and this whole bisexuality thing is your way of seeming interesting or whatever. Like you’re so Muslim you won’t even drink a drop of alcohol and you want us to think you’re for real gay?”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

“Maybe ... sometimes people don't see the things they do as wrong, but they can see the wrong in what other people do - especially if it's done to someone they care about ... When it happens to someone else, it doesn't feel as important as when it happens to someone we love.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“White people like to pretend that race is only as deep as the color of our skin—maybe because the color of their skin gets them so many benefits.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“Like everything in the world has fallen away to make space for this moment, for the rhythmic breathing of the two of us, side by side. Despite the cold, the rain, and the damp, the warmth of Flávia’s body is a palpitating thing next to me. The heat of her is stronger than any Irish sun.”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars

“Who studies biology and chemistry first thing on a Saturday morning?”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating