Hello, my name is Farhana Zia and here is the short story of how I became a children’s book author. Born in Hyderabad, India, I immigrated to the U.S. in 1967. My husband and I currently live in Framingham, Massachusetts. We have two children and three grandchildren, aged 15, 12 and 11. I am a former elementary school teacher. You could say that teaching is my first passion and writing, my second. I write to recall the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of things that meant something to me. And to pay homage to the values and traditions that have shaped me. My stories are multicultural, so I can say that I write to open small windows into a different way of life. I write because happily writing suits my personality. I can be on center stage from behind the scenes and from the safety of my writing desk. Lastly, I write so that my three grandchildren can say, “If Ama (grandmother) can achieve, so can we.”