Writing POC 101

Indian Characters

When it comes to Indians the word to remember is diversity. Not all of us are Hindus, not all of us speak Hindi, and we do not only eat butter chicken and naan. 

Language

There are 22 recognized languages. So understand that Hindi is not the only language of India. I can understand five languages and fluently speak, read and write​ three Indian languages. And the only reason I learn Hindi is cause of the curriculum.

Religion

Hinduism is not the only religion. There are Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, parsis and even Jews. Although these might be a minority they still exist. And yes there are inter religion marriages, I'm a half Hindu half Christian myself.

Food

We do not spend our lives living on butter chicken and naan. There are other foods too. In the north there are roti, kulcha, parata, chaat and in the south you do not only find idli and vada . There are things like appam, pongal, pundi etc.

Things which people always get wrong:

- Strong accents

We do have accents but not so strong that you can't understand what we say.

-Strict parents

Every story on Wattpad which mentions an Indian with a strict parent, you're not wrong. Our parents are strict, we have curfews and we are expected to get good grades. But that does not mean we are starved and threatened if we don't follow them.

You get bad grades your parents would just tell you where you went wrong and how to correct it. And we have curfews in India because it's not safe after a certain time.

Not all Indians are engineers or doctors and your parents don't pressurize you into becoming one. They want you to become doctors or engineers because they feel that has the most job security and they just want what's best for you

Relationships

Whoever thinks Indian parents don't let you have boyfriends or anything like that before marriage, screw you. Our parents don't mind as long as you don't get pregnant. Yes relationships are frowned upon by society and PDA well it would surely catch the eyes of fellow aunty ji's.

Love marriages do happen even though arranged are more common. And your parents do not force you to marry a man of their choice.

The patriarchy

Firstly yes patriarchy is prevalent in India. Secondly matriarchy is present too. In some south Indian communities there are matriarchal household present. I've grown up in a matriarchal family so don't tell me it doesn't exist.

Nuclear and joint families

In most cities finding a joint family is almost non-existent. Many families are nuclear and consist only of the parent and the kid even.

There are joint families though and they are mainly present in the towns and villages.

Most Indian children live with their parents until they get married or unless they live in a different city. The parents don't pressurize them into living with them and they move out at their own accord.