Here’s the thing – if you grew up in India in the late 90’s and 2000’s, you had limited exposure to queer and sapphic representation. Sure, there was that one Bollywood movie called Girlfriend but it only really depicted an unhealthy relationship and not much else.
So what I’d like to do is to thank Ameya Narvankar for creating this lovely little book about a Queer Indian wedding! Ritu weds Chandni is about a wedding between the eponymous characters told through the eyes of Ritu’s young cousin Ayesha. Ayesha is young enough to be untouched by the bigotry of society but old enough to recognize it in others. This book manages to portray the usual homophobic tyranny of Indian society from the perspective of a young child alongside stunning illustrations.

The characters involved, food, clothes and ambience of a North Indian wedding was beautifully drawn and the narration was simple and effective!
This is the kind of book that can help bring up a more thoughtful and brave generation. It is also the kind of book I wish younger me had read because self-acceptance takes its own sweet time, you know.

I received this copy from Netgalley in return for an honest review.