Postby vijayjohn » 2018-01-12, 21:47
I'm just going to try to give you an idea of what it might be like if you were born Indian because, you know, I was, so that and being born in the US are the only things I can speak about from personal experience. If you want to know to what extent this informs anyone else's experience, or even to what extent this differs from other American-born Indians, I'm afraid you're going to have to figure that out yourself. Describing my own is hard enough.
If you were born to Indian parents, they will probably each have some sort of anxiety-related disorder, as a result of which you will, too. They will scrutinize all sorts of things out of what you do, likely including but not necessarily limited to: how long you sleep, what time you wake up, what time you get out of bed, the difference between those last two times, what you do immediately after getting out of bed, what time you eat your first meal of the day, what you eat, where you eat, how much you eat, how often you eat, what might be causing you to eat what you do, how much you exercise, what you do in order to exercise, which people you speak to outside of school, how often you leave the house, what your reasons are for leaving the house at any time, where you go, when you go, how you go, who you go with, your grades in every single one of your classes in school (to the point where getting any grade less than 90 out of 100 points on any assignment/exam/whatever may very well make you scared to go back home), your exact height and weight, your plans for every five-year interval in the future from now, what your interests are, how likely your interests are to make you money in their opinion, what your lifelong career plans are, how soon you get married, how soon after that you make babies, what kind of a girl you can marry, how much of a dowry you can get (not applicable to all families), your religious beliefs, your personal quirks (which they will feel perfectly free to make fun of, even when talking to complete strangers, regardless of whether you are present or not), how often you speak in front of visitors to the house who are approximately the same age as your parents, how you react when anyone else visits the house, how well you can drive a bike, how well you can drive a car, any mistakes you ever made while driving either of these things, how much time you spend studying, what exactly you study, whether you're giving equal attention to everything you're supposed to be studying, how much you read, what you read, why you read it, when you read it, where you read it, how quickly you read it, how much time you spend playing sports, what sports you do or don't like to play, how many prizes you win at school, whether those prizes are academic or sports-related, what the specific purpose of each prize was, to what extent you speak your parents' language, what time you go to bed, how long you sleep, how well you sleep, what clothes you wear, what pyjamas and/or other nightgear you wear, any mistakes you make while putting on clothes or footwear of any type, how often you do household chores, which chores you do, how well you do them, how much time you spend in front of a computer, and in general, how often they catch you doing anything they find morally objectionable. Whenever they are unhappy at you, they will feel free to throw any and all information they glean from scrutinizing all of these things right at you. Even when they are calmer, any problems you experience from the times when they are unhappy will never disappear entirely; they will just hopefully talk about all this stuff less. You really hope they talk about it less. They will tell you they need to know all these things for your own safety. They will probably believe it, too. Without any friends of any type outside of the family, you will believe it, too. They will be outraged if you complain about any of this.