The regressive average-Indian mind
I scroll through Instagram seeing reels of children discussing their dating life with their parents; watch YouTube hauls of what an American influencer bought and wore this week; read the Cosmopolitan Magazine’s teen summer checklist. But I know my teenage reality is so different from this that reading this is like watching or reading fiction.
Sure, the top 1 per cent of India lives in educated and open families, discuss social issues, and wears what they want. But the majority of India – not just the economically disadvantaged, but even educated and comfortable families like mine – cannot even say the word sex at home without seeing their relatives squirm.
When I feel our society is taking one step forward, it takes another back. Now, this next story may sound boring and overheard, but it's true and relevant. A few weeks ago, I was going out for lunch with friends in a long skirt and a bralette. My skirt was high wasted, covering most of my stomach, and went down to my ankles. My bralette was a high-coverage one from H&M which hardly showed a thing. Now as covering as my outfit was, it was a win when my parents let me go out in it. But to ruin the outing, as I entered the car, my neighbour passed an audible remark calling my outfit skanky and outrageous.
Later, I went to buy STs as my period date was coming up. And as I went to buy a menstrual cup from the pharmacy, my mother joked about how disgusting and odd it was to buy one. To worsen things, my father couldn’t stop talking about how much he wanted me to become a doctor and how taking art instead of biology was a disgraceful mistake. When I remarked that such societal pressures are terrible for a child’s mental health, they told me to stop complaining and to wait and watch till I have children.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my family. And I don’t blame them for such conservative remarks. I blame the circumstances in which they and today’s children were/are growing up. If we are taught stories of husband-devotion in Hindi Literature and made to think that housewives are the only option for women, in home-science, then how can we accept the industry to produce open-minded individuals.
Yes, we are the fastest growing economy, heading for ‘development’. But if the reality of our 21st-century citizens is as backward as this, how can we dare to say we are a progressive nation.