Debutant writer Jabeen Akhtar is a chirpy young girl who spent seven years writing regulations for the US federal government before leaving to pursue a career in fiction writing.
Born in London and brought up in the US, Jabeen is a Pakistani by origin, who decided to quit her well-paying job in the US to pen down a book that catalogues her own life in a way — a thoughtful look into the Pakistani community in America. And while the ideas (in bits and pieces) have been picked up from her own life experiences, Jabeen has well managed to spin a fictional tale presented in a funny, tongue-in-cheek fashion.
Wecome to Americastan reveals Jabeen’s humour with sarcastic undertones. So how difficult was it to make the account sound funny? “It was very easy,” says Jabeen. The book talks about Samira, a Pakistani-American, who returns home to her family in North Carolina after being dumped by her boyfriend of eight years (for her best friend). Samira’s new indulgences include learning to make Aloo kofta curry, entertaining cousins from Pakistan, watching her mother spiking the punch with Captain Morgan rum, nursing her broken heart and having the Pakistani-American Council foisted on her by her father. And all of this contributes to the situational humour that runs consistently throughout the book.
“People keep asking me whether the parents in the book are my own parents, if Samira is me… but there is no character in the book that is based on one real-life person. I took things from people who have come into my life… things that have happened to me. That’s the best part about fiction,” she says, laughing, “Meena, for instance, is a part of my best friend in the US and a part of my cat, who’s name is also Meena.” While Jabeen might portray a not-so-easy life of a Pakistani in America, she asserts that hers has been a “very comfortable one”, as she grew up in Suburbia with her three elder siblings.
“If you’re growing up in Washington DC, you are expected to go to college, finish your graduation, and get into a government job… it’s a very set kind of a thing,” says Jabeen. “And even my life followed that pattern until I decided to write this book. I quit my job. I also became extremely commitment-phobic. I was on my own for a very long time. And I felt great… I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted to…” she concludes.
