Making your own choices. Following your dreams. Being what you want to be.
In the Indian context, I think it's easier said than done.
In a place like India where parents continue to play a major role in decision-making, are we really free to make our own choices? Yes, if that involves you choosing to take up a big paying job or pursue an MBA. Yes. But what if we decide to stray from the mainstream and want to do something else? What then?
Can we really make our choice freely in such a scenario?
In very few cases, really supportive parents will come forward and put their faith in their kids' decisions.
In most cases, however, parents will do all they can to stop their children from following their dreams.
I think most of us have, at some point, wanted to be something but were told to shut up and be what mamma-papa think we should be.
No amount of convincing would work. Our words would fall on deaf ears. We would be told that we are stupid and that they have lived far longer than us to know what's good and what's not.
So how does one deal with this? How far does one go to pursue his/her dreams? What price are we willing to pay?
Make our own decisions at the cost of destroying our relationship with the parents? But then imagine giving up on your dreams because of your parents. What kind of a relationship will you have with your parents then? Won't you have a grudge? Won't you blame them for any failure that you might encounter? I would. I definitely would.
My parents and I are warring these days on what I should do and what I shouldn't. And at the moment, I feel more sad than angry. I feel sad because I wish my parents would understand me a little better. I wish they would try to understand my aspirations. But life's a bitch. We can't change our parents. We can't do anything about them. We are stuck with them as much as they might feel stuck with us.
In the Indian context, I think it's easier said than done.
In a place like India where parents continue to play a major role in decision-making, are we really free to make our own choices? Yes, if that involves you choosing to take up a big paying job or pursue an MBA. Yes. But what if we decide to stray from the mainstream and want to do something else? What then?
Can we really make our choice freely in such a scenario?
In very few cases, really supportive parents will come forward and put their faith in their kids' decisions.
In most cases, however, parents will do all they can to stop their children from following their dreams.
I think most of us have, at some point, wanted to be something but were told to shut up and be what mamma-papa think we should be.
No amount of convincing would work. Our words would fall on deaf ears. We would be told that we are stupid and that they have lived far longer than us to know what's good and what's not.
So how does one deal with this? How far does one go to pursue his/her dreams? What price are we willing to pay?
Make our own decisions at the cost of destroying our relationship with the parents? But then imagine giving up on your dreams because of your parents. What kind of a relationship will you have with your parents then? Won't you have a grudge? Won't you blame them for any failure that you might encounter? I would. I definitely would.
My parents and I are warring these days on what I should do and what I shouldn't. And at the moment, I feel more sad than angry. I feel sad because I wish my parents would understand me a little better. I wish they would try to understand my aspirations. But life's a bitch. We can't change our parents. We can't do anything about them. We are stuck with them as much as they might feel stuck with us.
