Unfinished: A Memoir

by Priyanka Chopra Jonas

“Why isn’t my name on the nameplate, too? Don’t I live in this house?” Without missing a beat, my father answered, “So what would your name read?” I took a few seconds to think. “Priyanka Mimi Chopra, Upper Kindergarten.” Which was added to the nameplate as Miss Priyanka Mimi Chopra, Upper KG. I tell this story because it’s such a perfect example of how my parents raised me: with a sense of individuality and as a person who had rights, even at a very young age. When I questioned Dad further about it that day, he told me that I was correct to point out the omission. “You live in this house, too,” he’d said. “Your name should be on it.” Many parents wouldn’t have taken a complaint like mine seriously, but he and my mother did. The lasting effect was that I was not shamed for my feelings, my wish to be included, my keen sense of what’s fair and not fair. I was taught self-worth. I was given a voice.