Early into the lockdown, when celebrities were not the easiest available punching bag, and trolling on Instagram was far from being deliberately toxic, Karan Johar's #LockdownwiththeJohars video diaries were our happy space. His twins, Yash and Roohi, and their shenanigans with daddy dearest, reminded us that the world was still a better place, despite everything that was going wrong. Pandering to our voyeuristic instinct, Johar gave us a peek into his home, and even his walk-in closet, and how he, as a single parent, with his mother Hiroo, were raising the twins. Sometimes, Yash would be seen happily flaunting Roohi's jewellery, while Johar, who was the one behind the camera, would be overheard calling him "pretty"; on other occasions, the kids, sauntering in his closet, would be commenting on dad's over-the-top fashion sense and greying hair. There was innocence, of course. But, it was also a reflection of what Johar wants his kids to be—anything their heart desires.

His first children's book, The Big Thoughts of Little Luv (Juggernaut, Rs 450), illustrated by Priya Kuriyan, is an extension of his learnings as a parent. "…as I raise my twins, I find that we're still going by the old rules for them," Johar writes in the introduction. "It feels more stark to me as I raise a set of mixed twins. Recently, someone told Yash, 'You're crying like a girl.' Why should crying be for girls? Why should Roohi get the doll; why should Yash get the car? And I am constantly fighting with my mom about her 'boy' and 'girl' clothing choices for the twins," he adds.

The book is the story of Luv, a young child, who says he is "confused," because while he has a twin with the same colour of eyes and hair as him, and even has similar-looking poo-poo, the two are treated differently. Why? "Because I am a boy and Kusha is a girl." Luv is part of a conventional Indian family, unlike Johar's—there is dad, mum and dadi, and of course, rules of how children should be raised. When he dresses up like a princess, dad says, "Silly Luv, boys don't wear dresses." When he falls off a swing, dadi picks him up and murmurs, "Be brave, my silly Luv, boys don't cry." It's these rules that have left little Luv puzzled. "Who made them and why?" In typical Johar style, it's at a big fat Indian wedding—men flaunting pink pagris and sherwanis, and women dressed to the nines in lehenga-cholis and saris à la Manish Malhotra—that Luv finds the answers, as does his family.

Kuriyan brings Johar's characters to life, especially capturing the complexities of gender norms and Luv's own confusion, of why he can't be everything and anything. Her wedding scene has Johar written all over it, and that we find amusing.

Johar has chosen to tell a relevant story in his children's debut. It's personal, as much as it's real. And it is plain simple advice from a parent—let kids flower into their own.

What: The Big Thoughts of Little Luv

Cost: Rs 450

Where: amazon.in

Priya Kuriyan