Same Sun Here Read Online Free PDF Page B

City. Also, I have a very good sense of smell.
    It would take a zillion pages to list all the things I am NOT good at.
    At the library this morning, I looked at the book by your S. E. Hinton called The Outsiders . It was missing pages, so I didn’t take it out. I have put in a request for a copy from another library. It took me three months to get A Tree Grows in Brooklyn because all the copies in the city were missing or on hold. I think it is a very popular book. I have already finished reading it, and I am now halfway through it again. It has some hard words but they are beautiful. My favorite new word is SUCCULENT. Since reading this book, everyone I pass on the street seems full of stories and dreams and a secret sadness.
    My favorite meal is
chawal
(rice),
kala dal
(black lentils),
roti
(bread),
raita
(yoghurt), spicy mango pickle, and
sitaphal
(a kind of fruit). Dadi and I ate this meal all the time. Actually, I do not know if it is still my favorite, because I cannot eat it with Dadi and part of what made it taste good was being with her. I think Dadi would like where you live. If she comes to America, I will tell her about your uncle who sells houses. She does not speak English, so I would live with her and be her interpreter. Then we could all be neighbors.
    It is very exciting that your mountains look just like mine. I googled Black Banks at the library and read that is in the Appalachian Mountains. Mum always says, “People are people.” I guess mountains are mountains. I never knew that before. In Hindi, the word for pine tree is this:

    I don’t think I believe in the Bible because I am Hindu. But in our bedroom, Mum has an
aarthi/puja
space, where she keeps a picture of the Virgin Mary right next to Lord Krishna. Also, Mum always says, “Do unto others,” and I think that is from the Bible. In Mussoorie, I went to St. George’s School, where there were many Christian teachers. There are lots of missionaries in Mussoorie because the British used to go there when they felt hot. Kiku says Christians think that everyone should change to be like them or we will all go to hell. You are a Christian and it does not seem like you think I should be one, too. Do you?
    Sometimes Kiku says mean things because he is a teenage boy with a lot of hormones. I wasn’t going to tell you this, but I had to ask him what “the N-word” means. He told me, and then he said a white person who uses the N-word hates Indian people, too. I am telling you this so I am not keeping secrets from you, but I hope you are not upset.
    I asked Mrs. Lau what kind of dog Cuba is and she said, “He’s a New Yorker.” She said he followed her home from work twelve years ago. She thinks he is one of those fight dogs, but he was too nice to fight so he ran away. This was a new story for me. If I had not met you, maybe I would never have asked Mrs. Lau that question. I am so glad to have met you.
    I hope your mother doesn’t have a headache today. Has she been to Dr. Patel? By the way, I think it’s not nice that you think the way Dr. Patel speaks is funny. And I think your mamaw elbows you because it is rude to stare at someone just because they look different from you. You said yourself it was bad when your daddy didn’t like people different from him, right?
    I bet Mrs. Patel is homesick like me. I don’t like it when people make fun of the way I talk. It doesn’t seem like I have an accent, because I am writing, not speaking, to you. But I DO have an accent, and if you made fun of me for it, I would not want to be your friend anymore and Kiku would probably beat you up.
    Next week, the day after Labor Day, school starts. When I first came to New York, it was March, so I could not go to school because of the city rules that say you have to wait till September. That year, Kiku taught me from his books and made up examinations for me and put smiley faces on them. And then for three years, I went to PS 110, but we didn’t do much except