Thats for my sister, Nandita Patel, who turns 18 today. She's my cousin sister actually, but I prefer to call her sister, as she, along with her younger imp (as in devil!) Yera remember to send me rakhis every year, and basically I am closest to them compared to my other cousins. Anyway, I ask the typical 18th birthday question. "So, Nandita, what do you plan to do today on your 18th birthday. You know, like something you havent done before?" You know, if someone would have asked me I would have said "Vote! But damn, they had their elections 3 months back". Nah, I would have said drive a fast car. However, I heard of cases here in StrangeLand where kids ache to turn 18 cos they can officially drink alcohol now. (Yeah, the alcohol prohibition is enforced pretty strongly here. Of course, they dont give a damn about teenage pregnancy though cos I guess everybody is too busy making sure no one who aint supposed to drink, drinks while kids who dont wanna drink find better pastimes. I wonder why I enjoyed playing cricket and football and sports so much when I was young. Those were my pastimes. Thats the longest paranthesised statement I have ever seen. You've forgotten where I was going right?). These guys goto a bar and have competitions where the birthday boy guzzles down glasses and glasses of liqour to check his "stamina" and of course, some drown themselves to death. So much desperation? They must be eternally thirsty.
I have migrated again. So, Nandita still has a teddy bear with her, which is sweet. She loves teddy bears like a lot of other gals. But, I wanted to make fun of her and I went on like a typical elder bro saying how shes too big for her lil teddy and all that. She came back - "Satwik bhai, I think I am glad I chose the teddy over drugs, alcohol and smoking, dont you?" It hit me then! Man, here its a big deal if you get through high school without picking up any of those habits. Drugs?? I have never had a friend in all my education who ever did drugs. And here it is a lot more common. Dude, Nandita is right. She's a strong girl to have evaded peer pressure and all that and come through unscathed. Cheers to that! (My glass is filled with fruit punch ok, remember - teetotaller?) She and her sister are the silver lining in the clouds for me, cos I firmly believed Indians could not bring their kids up here and not have them get affected by the culture and the inherent prejudices and vices attached to it. Three cheers to her parents too for that. But, no.. Im still not gonna advise other Indians to raise their families here! Its too scary whats out there.
Thats it. My tiniest blog ever. Dedicated to my lovely sister on her birthday. You make me proud. By the way, her answer to my stupid question was "Nothing great, I will just go out with my friends and also with my parents". I dont remember when I last spent a birthday celebrating with my parents. Wait, yes I do. I was 10 years old and mom had baked this cake which looked like a cricket field and it had fielders and batsmen on it too. And my bro was jealous, cos he didnt get a fancy cake for his birthday, ever!
5 comments:
Happy Birthday Nandita. Kudos to you for being a good girl. Well, Chaos Guy, you are learning a lot about new lands & their lifestyles. Continue your writing.
What? that cricket cake was for your b'day? I thought twas for mine. anyway, i'm sure i ate more ;). C'mon stop lying on ur blog, last b'day u spent with parents was when u were 10?? kuch bhi fekta hai.
Oh! I forgot, Happy Birthday Nandita :) (Does she read this space?)
Its me nandita here. thanx for all the sweet comments! But wow Satwik Bhai you have some interesting views on America...dare i say possible misconceptions? i hope you do not think that all american teenagers are drunk party freaks. Because this clearly not true. there are ways to explain this occurance (of drinking) among teenagers. something that is forbidden will always be more tempting than something that is handed to you or something that you are allowed to do. So thus when large companies spend billions of dollars promoting thier product (beer and the such) and kids are told you can't have that...naturally thats all they want it. And i don't think this kind of drinking is limited to america...because i have seen and heard of wild dringing everywhere. europe, south america, and...yes...even India. so to place this stereotype on American children is a little unfair. As for teenage sex... well i think the world's view on sex is changing. it is more open than ever. I don't about that one...thats a funny topic because there are so many issues surrounding it. i think teenagers are influenced very much by the media so when all they see on american tv is violence and sex...can you blame them for going out and anting to do it. it really is the parents responsibility to limit and supervise what there children watch...but they don't! so can we blame those children! no can we the parent yes and no. sometimes parents have so much to do...work and so on that they don't get time. many are single family homes. whatever the case may be... it is all not bad. i don't think this is a bad country to raise kids. not the best country to raise kids...but not the worst. i think drugs and sex happen everywhere and the degree to which it happen differ but who knows mabye india in thirty years will be in the same calibar as America?
thanks for the birthday wishes and i am not rying to get defensive...just trying to present a view.
Nandita, thats the longest comment I ever got, for the shortest post I ever wrote! Yeah, I agree with you that I am basically making my judgements on what I see on TV, the movies, the media, from friends who've been living here for a while. I want StrangeLand to prove me wrong in my time here, if it can. My views maybe narrow-minded and may sound made-up, but I just expressed what I felt was so obvious!
Everything that you say is so clear and makes sense too dear sister. I may have jumped to a few conclusions too early, but I sincerely didnt mean to say all StrangeLandians are drunk freaks. You do make some good arguments, but you can actually trace each one of them back to the lifestyle they have here, cant you? Parents not having time for their kids, kids leaving home and becoming independent a tad too early (for my liking at least), uncontrolled sex and violence on the media made to look and sound cool and something you wanna be doing. Thats what I wanna keep kids away from, the materialstic side of life, they are young and easily impressed.
Finally, all I want to say is you are definitely proving to everyone what a smart, independent thinking and confident girl you are! Keep going sis and lotsa love and luck.
I have a friend named Nandeeta! the name is spelled differently!
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