What I Learned Growing Up In An Indian Society?

Sitting on the closed toilet seat with tears in my eyes, after every other fight with my parents, I stand up to look at my reflection in the mirror.

I'm a teenage girl of barely 17, living in a two-roomed rented apartment with two of my siblings and my dear parents.

After having countless fights with my parents, elders, and relatives (who I bet barely know my name), I have learned a few remarkable things about Indian society.

You don't have a personal life

Just like a housefly that flies on from one room to another spreading infection. Everything about you is like an infection passed on to the remote corners of your relatively large family, by your aunts being the carrier.

It's like they are running a special investigation against you, by noting down the manner in which you eat or sit or talk.

Trust me!! they would even know the places where you hide your underwear!

And the mountain falls on you when you get to know that the biggest of the information leakers is your own biological mom!

You don't have your own dreams

It's actually fine to dream about being a dancer, a singer, or even a cricketer till you are in your elementary or sometimes in your middle school.

Some parents may entertain that idea of yours but don't be happy yet. It's like a trap and you are bound to get caught on the web, since you are THEIR child, and they know you the best!

They make you believe you can have anything.

If you have dreams you are already smart enough, but the thing is as soon as you enter high school, the real games start then.

Don't be shocked when a few relatives out of nowhere would suggest you take science, to be a doctor, or an engineer or an IS officer like I said it's a trap.

You don't have a choice of your own, and you'll clearly know this when you'll decide to take natural sciences instead of liberal arts.

You are an investment

 Just like a businessman invests in the stock market, you too are an investment with your parents being the businessman.

They invest in you, so you can achieve something bigger, so you can multiply their investments by paying them back during old age.

You're just an investment to achieve whatever they couldn't.

You are never enough

 No matter if you came first in your class, or you score full in your geography test, or you win an award in poetry, you are never enough.

One of your aunt's or uncle's, or even a relative's child whom you barely know or who knows you barely would always be better.

Still, there's no competition, cause, you are not enough to compete.

So better accept it.

Your elders are always right, they know the best

 No matter how many times your father forgot to switch off the kitchen's light, or your mother accidentally dropped the glass vase, they are always right !!

If you are the one who forgets to switch off the lights or drop the glass vase, you're dead.

And if you argue back, you LITERALLY are DEAD.

But don't worry I'll be accompanying you to the graveyard.

My sympathy is with you !!

Trust me these are just a few.

***

Whatever the case might be, Indian society still teaches you a lot of things, from living in gigantic families to pushing you to your limits to achieve something. It has its own way of teaching and it's fine.

I do understand that.

Ignore me if I offended any of the Indian society members.

Just ignore me,

After all, I'm just a useless kid of 17.