growing up in india essay

Growing Up a Desi Girl: What It Means to Be Between Two Worlds

When I'm presented with a "Where are you from?" I usually run through this multiple-choice quiz in my head:

a. Say that I'm American and be prodded to admit where I'm really from, as though being born on native soil isn't enough of a token of my American-ness.

b. Say that I'm Indian and sit through the whole FAQ, ("Wait, red dot Indian or Native American? Do you eat curry every night? Do your parents speak English? Will your marriage be arranged?")

c. Say "around here" and fake that I have to go to the bathroom.

I roll the dice with options A-C, depending on how much energy I have that day. But, the truth is? I'm not sure myself some days.

Being a woman of color, people often press you even harder on that "Where are you from?" question. Questions that are often considered harmless can sometimes result in an awkward, stumbling identity crisis. My standard reply of, "California, around the SF… Bay Area," never seems to placate people, because my tan skin, big dark eyes, and thick eyebrows betray me. I don't look like I'm really American to a lot of people (read: sun-kissed, California-beach-blonde beauty), and so the label never quite fits. Add in the fact that my name is "Nikita" and I've truly thrown the audience a plot twist. Is she from here? Is she mixed-race? Is she an alien? Stay tuned to find out!

I've lived in four big cities in under 18 years: Chicago, New Delhi, San Francisco, and New York. New York is now home, and technically because my family is in California, so is San Francisco. It's odd to juggle specific regional identities that pertain to the U.S. only while negotiating the complications of my ethnic and cultural identities as well. Saying I'm from California means something different to people than "American," and saying I'm Indian carries other implications. Plus, the "Indian" identity is an umbrella term for a series of different identities all woven together by a similar overarching cultural thread and a political boundary. India is a vast country with dozens of languages, cuisines, and more — no two Indian experiences can ever neatly intersect.

Perhaps if I were entirely born and raised in America, I'd feel as though I wasn't too Indian to fit under "American" neatly. And, maybe if I didn't spend the better part of my 21 years in America, I'd feel better just saying I am Indian. I love being Indian, but sometimes I don't feel Indian enough, really. I am Indian. I am American. I am Indian-American. Neither there, nor there — but somewhere in between.

I lived in India for the better part of the first 5 years of my life, and once I moved back to the U.S., I immediately felt alien amongst my classmates. With my broken English, my funny accent, and the fact that I had no idea who Pikachu was, I may as well have been from another planet. I was a quick study, though: I laboriously repaired my accent, always making sure to pronounce my Vs and Ws correctly, and never allowing my Rs to linger on my tongue for too long; I watched all the "Blue's Clues" I could get my hands on; I asked my parents to take me to movies, the works. However, despite all my efforts otherwise, I felt culturally inept.

So I stepped up my efforts. I began shirking my Indian-ness and wholly adopting American culture in an attempt to fit in. I spent the better part of my teenage years acting as though my own culture was backwards, primitive, and something worth being ashamed of. I turned up my nose at Indian food, maligned religion, and was just kind of a brat. "I'm like, the whitest Indian girl like, ever," and all that jazz. I tried so desperately to lose all the things that made me different so that I could fall into a dominant narrative that wasn't mine and didn't need to be mine — despite how much the world sometimes made (and still makes) me feel otherwise.

I had made an error in naively assuming that assimilating wholeheartedly would make my life easier, but the truth is: whiteness didn't fit. And somehow, full on Indian-ness didn't either, given that I was (mostly) raised and schooled in America. I didn't feel as though I could relate to either fairly. In retrospect? As much as I desperately wanted one label or the other to fit in an absolutist fashion, they never needed to: it's okay to be who I am, the way I am. I think I fall somewhere in between Indian and American; I am the definition of a hyphenated, hybrid identity.

The truth is, it's okay to feel like you're neither here nor there — we are all shaped by the experiences we've lived through. There is no right way to be Indian, and there is no right way to be American. We're formed by our individual experiences and beliefs, and it's daunting to collapse millions of experiences into one label for a curious stranger (or even yourself!). It is normal to feel confused by your own identity from time to time, to feel like an enigma. Trust me though — as much as the world keeps making you feel like an absolute weirdo, you are not. Learning and knowing that I have a place in this world has been healing; finding people who have shared similar struggles, experiences, and stories has been instrumental. Know that you are not entirely alone, and as you go through life you will encounter your people.

I still don't know how to really answer that dreaded question, though. I'll keep rolling the dice and get back to you.

*Editor's Note: This headline has been adjusted from "Growing Up Indian and American" since its original publish date to reflect that Neelam Gill, the model pictured, is Indian and British.

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Growing Up in India

by Nissi Undurthi

Tall coconut trees, dirt road, and small sweatshops along the narrow road–these are the images that flash before my eyes as I think of my village. Located in the coastal area of South India, my village provided for a perfect backdrop for a wonderful childhood. Fifteen years of my life there holds such fond memories with lots of fun and laughter as well as experiences that I will continue to learn from and encounters I am forever impacted by. 

As a child, many of my memories include not only my two siblings but also a lot of other children from my street as we all played, studied, and often ate together.  Every evening after school, the dirt road that comes off from the main road became our playground with occasional interruptions from cyclists, herds of goats or buffaloes. We had many local games such as “kho-kho” or “kabaddi” or cricket, most of which involved lots of running around, singing or shouting out to other players. Often, we played until our moms yelled for us to come home for dinner. Studying was also a lot of fun as we shared text books and quizzed each other on lessons. At one point in time, one of us acquired a bicycle from their older sibling and our evenings filled with us each taking turns learning to ride it. In our group, we all came from different families, caste backgrounds, and religions, however, we had shared fun memories and no differences were ever expressed. 

South Indian family structure traditionally is built on strict patriarchal roots and values. While women and children are important members of the family, the husband/father is the head of the family and the primary (or often sole) decision maker. In more traditional families, this honor belongs to the grandfather. The hierarchy goes like this: grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, any male children, and any female children regardless of who’s older or younger. All families in the community have rules of behavior adhering to their social divisions of caste, social status, and religion. While all children have the responsibility of maintaining family honor and traditions, the way these are lived out differ for boys and girls. Families who send their children to schools expect them to succeed in order to maintain or improve their financial means. There is always an expectation that the children will give back to their family and community. Despite a free education in the local public schools, male children often follow their parents to work in the paddy fields, while female children are restricted to a certain number of years of schooling–after which they are confined to home life to prepare for marriage or be married off. Girls in my village also have a specific responsibility to keep themselves pure and innocent, protecting their family’s honor by protecting their body. Often, girls of age are restricted from going outside to avoid contact with potential danger whether it is for play or school.

Out of the many stories I have been a part of in my village, the story of Vinayak always saddens me. I met him when I was in middle school and he would call me “ Akka,” aka “older sister.” He was raised by a single mother and has a younger brother. For a couple of years, he went to school and was on his way to fulfilling his expectation of soon helping his family through his education. However, because of bad friendships he dropped out of school. The more he started to do things that upset our community, the more he was reprimanded and isolated. One day, he attempted to steal from the house of a village elder and was caught in the act. That was the last straw. He was permanently seen as a negative influence in our community and the elders stopped guiding him. He was still a teenager at the time. 

When I think of him, I think of how we played and laughed together. I think of all the possibilities of a bright future that was halted. I think of his mother weeping and yearning to see him change. I also think of how young he was, with a full life ahead of him. A part of my hope for my community draws me to this life I observed and interacted. 

Childhood anywhere is valuable and the initial experiences and encounters often influence and impact us strongly and for a long time. Some of the hindrances to a better childhood in my village are cultural and as a result, solutions need to be sensitive to that context  When families and individuals come together to not only recognize this importance but also implement ways to better the life of children and strive to provide and encourage the necessary elements such as education, then that becomes the beginning for resilient communities. 

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Senior Essays: Growing up Indian in America

Atlanta, GA, July 14:  Last month, we asked Indian-American teens to submit an essay on the topic, ‘Growing up Indian in America’. We had a great response from our young talents.

“It was good to see the perspectives of these youngsters,” said Ajay Vishwanathan, one of the judges. “From being embarrassed by their Indian lunches to becoming aware (and eventually respectful) of the space they occupy between the two cultures, the experiences were intriguing to read.” The other judges echoed his sentiments.

Congratulations to Senior Category winner Ananya Ghosh, Runner-up Suma Gangasani and all other participants!!

Diversity Within Diversity (Winner, Senior Category)

Imperialism. It’s a word that the entire world was familiar with when Great Britain was a force to be reckoned with. Snatching up territory to expand its sphere of influence, the unassuming island claimed lands from the bottom tip of Africa to the northern regions of the Americas.India was also caught in its wide cast net, tangled in fishing line, but jumped to turn back to water.

In the traditional sense of the word, imperialism is now obsolete. Countries don’t stake claim to territories; they influence others by diplomacy, military, and most importantly, culture.America’s cultural imperialism is very subtle, taking the form of a boosted denim industry in Korea and a greater likelihood of spotting a Kentucky Fried Chicken in India. If my India-dwelling counterpart is swaying from her traditional Indian culture, then how am I, a first generation America-dwelling desi, supposed to stick to mine? This imperialism is not only the root of an internal struggle, but also led to the birth of the American-born Confused Desi (ABCD).

This person will be ready to eat a Domino’s pizza, while secretly craving some biryani, butter chicken, and saag paneer. This person loves to go to football games, but also gets up at 5 to watch the India-Pakistan cricket match. This person perfects the art of the Indian mono-braid at a young age, and later perfects the art of the messy bun.

But sometimes, this dual-culture can be confusing. Do we go to the new Hollywood blockbuster with trendy actors, or do we go to the run-down theater on the other side of town to see the Bollywood box office hit? Do we press a single button on our car sound system to get English music, or do we shuffle through our Hindi music playlists on our phones while simultaneously rushing to find the aux cord at a red light? How many times can we make a conscious decision to immerse ourselves in American culture before we can no longer make a list of the Top 10 Shah Rukh and Kajol moments from film, or forget the words to our favorite Hindi song? How much time does it take for us before keeping up with Bollywood movies, Hindi songs, Indian sports and current events becomes too taxing?

Being an American-born Confused Desi is difficult. We dwell on the dichotomy between American and Indian culture, with a cultivated respect for both. We go through phases where being Indian is easier, but usually the American phase predominates. Maybe some can sit on the bridge between the two, but such cases are regarded as rare.

However, even the most ‘white-washed’ Indian treasures and possesses the remnants of his Indian heritage. He might wear Polos and Sperry’s to school, but he still remembers how to play the tabla from the lessons he took as an elementary school kid. She might refuse to speak Hindi at home, but she will always oil up her rusty vocabulary before speaking on the phone with her thamma. And even the most ‘fresh off the boat’ Indian still captures part of the essence of American culture growing up, despite his boycott on Hollister tees and McDonald’s fries.

ABCDs lie on a spectrum of Indian-American culture, but can never reach one side completely. This diversity within diversity is what makes the Indian community in America remarkable. Instead of consisting of two primary colors blue and yellow, an American-born Confused Desis is one of thousands of shades of green. We might have struggled growing up in two worlds, but as young adults, we appreciate our unique cultural perspectives, our atypical social experiences, and our great fortune of having been born into a culture with such a storied past and present.

We are criticized for being too Indian by Americans, and too American by Indians. But by our own standards, we are all sitting on a bridge together.

-Ananya Ghose Age: 16 School: Chattahoochee High School

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In a sense, I lived two lives (Runner-up, Senior Category)

“yet another magazine where i see no one who looks like me,” i sighed to my friend as i flipped through magazines for a project in yearbook class. besides one ad for priyanka chopra’s show quantico , i had yet to see any indians gracing the pages, or even corners, of the magazines that people all over america consume daily. when i thought about it, the same was true for television and movies. it was a breakthrough seeing an indian woman heading a television show for a major network, but what about everything else.

My favorite TV show is the recently ended Castle . I was thrilled that Sunkrish Bala was cast in the crime-comedy but was disappointed to find that he was merely another background character who just so happened to work with computers. Why couldn’t he fight crime? Why did he have to be typecasted to one of the handful of roles left for Indians as the IT specialist, the doctor, the taxi driver, or the gas station owner? Come on, it’s 2016. We do so much more than that, right?

Growing up as an Indian-American I have become accustomed to my minority status not just in the media but in my everyday life. When I was in elementary school, I became aware that I was not like everybody else. Besides the fact that I stood out for being taller than most of my female and male counterparts, I discerned that my skin color made me different. Some people would assume that because I was Indian, I was naturally gifted at math, when in actuality I worked hard to understand it; or that I couldn’t play sports – when I actually loved to play volleyball. It was not all their fault. Media and society had groomed them to believe many of these things.

Throughout elementary school, most – if not all – of my school friends were not Indian. My family would jokingly refer to me as a “coconut” because they thought that I was brown on the outside but white on the inside. In a sense, I lived two lives. At home I ate Indian food, listened to my parents speak Telugu, and said my three shlokas every morning on the way to school as my mom played her M. Balamuralikrishna CD. On the weekends I attended Indian functions and Balavihar. Outside of this, however, I was full-blown American: I went to soccer practice, listened to pop music, and even forced my parents to buy me a “Just Like You” American Girl doll which, for the record, didn’t even look like me because there were no dolls with Indian features. I didn’t actively try to mix my American side with my Indian side, but whenever my two worlds coincided, I was secretly over the moon. My 8-year-old self was thrilled to learn that the third installment of Disney Channel’s The Cheetah Girls franchise would be set in India because it seemed to me as though an outsider had taken an interest in my other universe.

For the longest time, it was not that I rejected my Indian heritage but that I never fully embraced it – until I started high school.

The Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology, is not your ordinary high school. Forty-one percent of the student body is Asian, and South Asians compromise much of this percentage. This school gets much of the credit for helping me come a long way from my younger self in terms of embracing what it means to be Indian. The open student body and culture have given me many opportunities to display and expand upon my Indian identity both inside and outside of school. Out of fascination with classical dance, I started learning Kuchipudi; I partake in Garba each year to celebrate Navaratri; my musical playlist now includes many Hindi tunes. Unlike before, I now try to show my non-Indian friends Indian culture. I want to blend my two worlds.

When I was younger, I avoided learning Telugu partly because it seemed like a daunting process. Now that I am older, I have a deeper understanding of the importance of learning Telugu. It not only lets me communicate with my relatives but also connects my life here in America to my ancestral ties back in India. Just because I have grown up in America doesn’t mean that I have to abandon my Indian roots. While American culture has definitely shaped my upbringing, my Indian heritage has not been forgotten. I am proud of both of my identities and the fact that I have had the opportunity to be raised amidst two unique cultures. It has taken much growing up to realize that my two worlds don’t have to be separate but can coexist as one.

– Suma Gangasani Age: 17 School: Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology

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The other notable essays (in random order):

Neither there nor here, but somewhere in between.

 “Wait.. so do you speak Indian?” “Are you feather or red dot Indian? “Are you getting an arranged marriage?” are many of these questions I have been asked throughout my 11 years of school and trust me, some people still ask me questions despite the growth in diversity in America in the past decade. Growing up as an Indian in America has been rewarding, yet challenging trying to fit in a world where we are considered immigrants.

 Although we live miles away from India, I still feel connected to my Desi roots. My parents have embedded strong Indian values and traditions in me since I was a toddler. I have learned Hindi from a young age, have been exposed to and fallen in love with Bollywood cinema, have learned Kathak at NNKB since I was four, have been taught about my religion, and have celebrated Indian festivals. I think that when an Indian family is raising a child in America they must not forget their Indian culture because it is so important to teach future generations the importance of heritage so they can keep it alive for years to come. For example, Indian classical dance and my religion have been huge components in my life since I was young. Learning Kathak has helped me understand my culture in depth and has taught me Indian values and history. My family is also heavily involved with JSGA, and learning about my religion has really kept me in touch with my roots and heritage.

 Celebrating different religious festivals has helped me forge life long bonds with family and friends, taught me about my culture, and given me a tolerance for traditions. Not being able to grow up in India right next to my family has been tough at times, but being blessed with such amazing parents and friends has really helped me stay in touch with my Indian background. Not only this, but I also live in Johns Creek, also known as Little India, and go to Northview, one of the best and most diverse high schools in the state. One of Northview’s biggest events is International Night in which the whole student body comes together and celebrates the difference cultural backgrounds we come from. Celebrating our Indian heritage with the rest of the JC population brings so much pride and reminds me how fortunate I am to be living in an environment where I can express my culture. Having events around the city such as International Yoga day, Festival of India, Holi, Garba, and Diwali help me stay in touch with Indian culture. Living in such a strong Indian society has taught me how important it is to stay connected to one’s roots.

 I’ve always known how important it is to stay connected with all my family around the globe, but lately, it has been hitting me so much harder. My family has ensured that we visit Indian every summer but lately since I have been in high school we haven’t been able to go that often. The last time I went to India was freshman year and for the past year, I think about the motherland every day. Almost everything Indian reminds me of motherland and I long to go visit and cherish every moment of me being there. I now understand that it is vital to keep your traditions alive and teach children about your culture because it is the one special thing that can keep you going when things get rough.

However, living in the suburbs of Atlanta isn’t all just one big fairy-tale; there are its cons, and the biggest one I believe is the feeling of always being considered a foreigner here. Yes, I was born here, but I come from an Indian heritage which distinguishes me from the “American” population. Likewise, when I visit India I am considered a foreigner there. Sometimes, I don’t know where I truly belong. I am American, but I am also Indian. Neither there, nor here- but somewhere in between.

 Growing up as a first generation Indian in the United States has been quite the ride. In all honesty, I wouldn’t trade it in the world. I was blessed with hardworking parents who came to America to live their dream, and because of their perseverance, I have been rewarded with such an incredible life. I feel truly privileged to be receiving the best education while being tied to my Indian roots, having my loving friends and family right by my side. I am really proud to be an Indian-American and look forward to many more adventures life brings me!

-Aarushi Jain Age: 17 years School: Northview High School

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I am privileged to be able to share my culture with others

 Every year, families throughout my neighborhood gather together for the celebration of lights, Deepavali. The sky shimmers with vivid colors: blue, gold, red, green, you name it. Although it’s a Hindu celebration, many others from our neighborhood join in the festivities, marveling at the bright night sky. While others are partaking in our Hindu festivities, I stand in awe at how interested people are in taking part in our culture.  Looking back, I realize that not only has life in America created an opportunity for me to embrace my culture as an Indian, but it also has given me an opportunity to share my culture with others and learn from theirs. I have learned that it really is quite easy to keep a cohesive culture and to remain motivated, no matter how far away from India I am. From participating in a weekly Balavihar to making service trips to India, I’ve taken advantage of the variety of opportunities available to me in America.

 As an Indian American, I have learned that it is always possible to find cultural values regardless of where I am. Every Sunday, my family and I spend a couple of hours at our Balavihar with like-minded people. For the first half an hour we chant prayers and then we have classes to become more familiar with the Hindu culture. In addition, it entails a variety of programs, which allow us as the next generation of Indians in America to understand and carry on cultural traditions such as Diwali, Garba, and Holi celebrations. Chinmaya Mission Balavihar has offered me such an amazing opportunity to reconnect with India and meet people who wish to do the same.

 Not only have I had the opportunity to take part in cultural celebrations in the United States, I have also had the wonderful opportunity to partake in a service visit to a rural community in Tamil Nadu,India. Through this service visit I had a chance not only to teach and help develop rural areas, but also to get in touch with my roots more intimately. I had a chance to spend three weeks comparing my life in America with my temporary life in India. The reason this opportunity was available to me was none other than because I grew up without giving up my Indian values in America.

 Growing up Indian in America also had an impact on my school and many of my friends. Many high schools and middle schools now have garba nights, and students show up in Indian attire, Indian or not, to enjoy the celebrations. International nights are filled with Indian performances, classical and Bollywood, one after the other. My friends ask to join me at Balavihar out of sheer curiosity about Hindu culture. It’s amazing how much of a melting pot our society has become and how easy it has become to grow up Indian in America.

 Similarly, by living in America, I have gained exposure to American culture, as well as many other cultures. I am part of an Indian family, but our family still puts up the Christmas tree every year. We light the same fireworks for Deepavali as we do on the 4 th of July. Because of this amalgamation of cultures, I’ve gained knowledge of a variety of cultural traditions such as Bar Mitzvahs, quinceañeras, and even Chinese New Year. My life in America therefore has given me the ability to learn about the many different backgrounds present in the world around me.

 At the same time, however, being Indian in America has placed tremendous pressure on me and many of my Indian friends as well. Being Indian automatically sets you at a higher academic standard, which inevitably creates tougher competition, the need for higher test scores, and a more outstanding resume than the average. Though there is increasing pressure, however, it serves as a form of motivation, which in my case has always encouraged me to aim for excellence.

Overall, my experience of growing up inAmericahas motivated me to enhance my knowledge and learn to appreciate my culture as well the culture of others. I have learned that although I live thousands of miles away from my homeland, I can still easily stay in touch with my Indian culture. Living in America has motivated me to do my best every day and to give my all to everything I do and it has opened my eyes to how privileged I am to be motivated and to be able to openly celebrate my culture and share it with others.

-Sadhana Durbha Age: 16 School:Lambert High School

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Unraveling the stories of India’s past helps pave my future

 Growing up as an Indian-American has been- in one encapsulating word- a journey; a wild adventure complete with its own set of trials and tribulations that I would not trade for the world. My ethnicity is essential to who I am today, but accepting my cultural identity and all of the rich history and vibrant traditions that come with it is a personal victory that I had to fight societal stigmas and, more importantly, myself for.

 I was born in Bengaluru, Karnataka and moved to the United States at a very young age. I grew up completely content with myself and never understood nor acknowledged hyphenated labels such as “Indian-American”. As all children of preschool and pre-kindergarten age, I did not “see” color; thus, I did not understand differences in race, religion, or ethnicity. I did not feel any different from my unhyphenated American friends, therefore I was not any different in my mind. I assumed that all my friends ate dosas and idlis at home and that they all practiced Hinduism like me. I remember attending an after-school Bible study session at my preschool as my parents were running late one afternoon and being really confused. All my schoolmates seemed to know the story, but I was completely lost. I simply brushed it aside as a story my parents just forgot to tell me. It was not until I started Kindergarten that I began to realize my cultural identity was different from that of my friends.

 Being a vegetarian was a foreign concept at my first elementary school. To avoid the awkward exchange with the lunch ladies in which I explained my predicament, I brought my lunch to school everyday. Unlike the carefully wrapped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches of my friends, my lunch generally consisted of rice and other Indian dietary staples. Because my meals looked different and smelled of pungent Indian spices, my lunch was often the object of my classmates’ curiosity and ridicule. As one of maybe five Asian students and one of only two Indian students at my school, my main priority was fitting in with the other children. My exotic lunches did not help my case. After several days of bringing home full lunch boxes, my mother sat me down and explained to me that my differences made me unique. My mother revealed to me the cultural significance of my meals and the rich history behind the flavorful dishes. She taught me to be proud of my Indian heritage and to always stay connected with my traditions. Unfortunately it took nearly an entire year of eating soggy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from the cafeteria before I finally learned my lesson and began appreciating my mother’s cooking.

 Soon, we moved to a community with a larger Indian presence, and I began to feel more accepted. As I entered adolescence, I still struggled with trying to keep my cultural identity separate from my identity. I vividly remember being embarrassed to speak in my mother tongue with my family in public settings or in front of my friends, because I was afraid they would judge me. Around the same time, my family and I started to become more actively involved in our cultural association – Nrupathunga Kannada Koota (NKK). My involvement helped me to begin sealing the breach and to start accepting my Indian-American label. My family and I also went to India for the summer between 7th and 8th grade. Reconnecting with my extended family and visiting historical sites gave me the vital exposure to my beautiful roots that I needed to finally embrace my cultural identity as a significant part my identity as a whole.

 As I transitioned into high school, I began making a conscious effort to incorporate my heritage and beliefs into my daily life. I began classical training in the expressive South Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam at Kalaivani Dance Academy and Bollywood at Kruti DanceA cademy. I also started taking a more serious interest in mastering my proficiency in the Kannada language and in reading and writing Kannada to ensure my mother tongue never dies out. I continued to learn about my ancestors and my past thanks to constant encouragement from my mother. My traditions have helped shape me into the person I am today. Being bilingual has taught me to appreciate other languages and has allowed me to communicate freely with all types of people. Learning Indian dance has given me an outlet to express myself and escape the struggles of everyday life. Unraveling the stories of India’s past helps pave my future. I am equal parts American and Indian, and I proudly embrace both cultures.

-Nisha Kashyap Age: 18 School: Georgia Institute of Technology

Growing up burdened to create a legacy

  Growing up Indian in America is growing up being ridiculed for your thick accent, being looked down upon for your skin color, and being scared of taking chances. It is being the victim of racism as your legacy is reduced to “another brown-skin stealing our jobs”.

 Growing up Indian in America is growing up disadvantaged before you can even speak. The melanin in my body lets people know I am an “alien” unknown to this country.

 Before people even learn my name, they have made assumptions about me based solely on the color of my skin. “I bet you’re really smart!” “You like spicy food, right?” “Your skin color is so pretty like coffee!”

 They think they are cunning and their comments are funny but what they don’t realize is when you generalize what you see on TV to an entire race, you are trivializing that race and disregarding the individual personalities of the people. Why must you compare my skin color to that of a perfectly swirled mocha for it to not taste bitter on your tongue?

 Growing up Indian in America is growing up scared to experience new things.

“I hope these people aren’t racist”. That is the phrase I chant to myself each time I step into an interview, a classroom, a party, a discussion. I repeat it to myself constantly as if it is a mantra that will pray the devil away. It is my mantra. It has sewn itself into the deepest parts of my mind. It is my biggest fear.

 Growing up Indian in America is growing up burdened to create a legacy. The stories of struggles our parents have overcome to get us here become ingrained in our brains. We have been recited those more than we have been read stories from Aesop’s Fables and they are what become our bedtime stories. But they are also what become our nightmares.

 We have to play it safe. Pick a safe career like medicine or business that will guarantee our success and future. Singers, dancers, artists, chefs, politicians are all out of question. We were brought here for one thing and one thing only: a guaranteed future. We must not think outside the box for who knows what scary things lurk there ready to deport us from the country we have learned to call ours. We must stay inside the box and create a legacy as strong as our parents’.

 Growing up Indian in America is hard. But it has only made us tougher.

I will always be a victim of the unoriginal “do you like curry” jokes. I will always wonder if the people I have just met are racist in anyway. I will always have to work twice as hard as a white man to be seen as half as good. I will always have the short end of both sticks because not only am I a person of color but I am also a woman. I will always, always, be at a disadvantage as an Indian inAmerica but it does not mean I will be less.

 My people did not fight to be free from the reigns of the white man just for him to deny us our rightful places in this world. I have learned to be headstrong, persistent, and dominating. I have learned to be a leader and stand up for everything I believe in despite all the people and obstacles in my way knocking me down.

 Growing up Indian in America is growing up with an opportunity to change the world.

Americais the land of opportunity and I aspire to take advantage of every single opportunity presented to me. I know that I can be anything, do anything, and have anything if I put my mind to it. I can be a lawyer and advocate for civil rights, I can be a diplomat and work to make living conditions better for minorities, I can become a biotech engineer and invent new medical supplies for those in poverty, I can even be a public speaker and speak out on issues such as rape and domestic issues.

 Growing up Indian in America is growing up with national pride.

Because of the racism Indians face from others, we tend to have stronger ties within our Indian community. Unlike inIndia, we do not define each other based on caste, religion, language, etc. We are birds of a feather. When we hear of a local temple holding a Holi festival, we’ll all show up in our white clothes ready to throw colors on strangers because in the end, we are all the same and we feel a strong bond.

Growing up Indian in America is the best thing that could have happened to me.

-Manya Garg Age: 17 years old School: Northview High School

——————————————————–

Suddenly I became the odd man out

 Eighteen years ago, I came bounding into our creator’s raw land; home, pleasure, love,

freedom; all hand in hand. The majority of my pre-pubescence, I walked the ancient streets of motherIndia. A country where the atmosphere is filled with joy, respect, and culture. It was a place of morals in a time of modernization. A land where humanity presents itself in the most muzzy, expressive burst of culture and religions, races and heritage.

 As I turned two, my parents set off to the United States entrusting me to my god parents —strictly speaking my aunt and uncle— as they went seeking for new job opportunities. As the first great-grandson in my entire extended family, I was raised like a king. With my uncle as my pedagogue, I grew up with opportunities accessing intellectual and spiritual growth, secure in the knowledge which I fancied, free from fear, and confident that my world was close to perfect.

 This state of innocence persisted until I reached my early teens. I was able to master eight languages, act in movies, dance to music, and pick up various unique skills.

 I began to explore and satiate my curiosity through my own exploration and experimentation. With a surprising amount of freedom at such a young age, I was able to build Rube Goldberg machines, simple circuits, high flying rockets, and retrieval mechanisms. I loved every bit of it. I often asked my uncle for his old electrical equipment, and when I heard the magical word “yes,” I would carefully reverse engineer his old VCRs, computers, RC planes, and rebuild them in high hopes of understanding how they ticked. My identity and aspirations were the product of early influences and childhood experiences. These little things are what taught me to be independent, to continue to be a scientist and an engineer at heart.

 On June 23, 2008, after becoming financially stable, my parents came back to India for the summer. They decided to take me to the land of opportunity. Their decision was the main transition to the second half of my life. Leaving my relatives behind was difficult, but I was fired up to travel afar and witness the beauty of our ever-changing world. I felt that travel was beyond the seeing of sights; it is when your mind reshapes, a change so profound and permanent that changes one’s life forever.

 After arriving in the United States, my expectations shattered. Suddenly, I became the odd man out. Bullying and racism became an integral part of my life. I endured the harshest of words, but I persevered and matured into the man I am today. It took time adjusting to the new climate, people, and culture; however, I adapted. I started celebrating the American holidays with my new found friends of the new world —from trick or treating to hanging ornaments on Christmas trees.

 Discovering new religions and cultures was what I found fascinating, because it was so distinct from mine. The values deeply rooted in me are a direct result of exposure to various cultures, which serves as a foundation in shaping my principles, behaviors, and attitudes.

 When I gaze into the mirror, I see an individual molded from two distinct cultures. Through life, I have examined, questioned, and experienced ideologies from both India and the Western world; this ideological experimentation has created who I am today. Born in India and raised in the United States, I have a perspective that often differs from my friends and family on both sides of the globe. I believe that I have been given a uniquely neutral exposure into the perspective of both cultures. The world is becoming increasingly complex, and it is increasingly imperative to walk a mile in another’s shoes.

 Regardless how ominous the situation may seem, there can always be a solution. We are human. We are more than the sum of our parts. If we are to survive as a species, we cannot be just a scattered collection of sheeple; we must also learn to embrace our differences and coexist. Cultures will blend and we will unite.

-Vishwa Mudigonda Age: 18 College: University of Georgia

 ——————————————————

The essays were graded blind by this panel of five judges- all with great writing credentials. Thank you for your time and effort, judges!

• Ajay Vishwanathan   has work published or forthcoming in over ninety literary journals, including The Minnesota Review, Sou’wester, Southern Humanities Review, The Potomac, and The Baltimore Review. He’s currently working on a new novel as his completed manuscript, Little Hands of Silk, is being readied by his literary agent to be sent  to potential publishers. One of the editors of Foundling Review, Ajay is the author of  From a Tilted Pail , a short story collection from Queen’s Ferry Press (2014).
• Navami Naik  works as Lead, Global Partnerships with the American Cancer Society. Navami has been working in non-profit management for the past 10 years. Prior to this, she worked as a journalist with The Times of India, where she primarily covered issues related to health and education. Navami holds a Master’s degree in Social Service from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania,USA and has trained as a journalist in the United Kingdom.
• Jyothsna Hegde  grew up in a house full of ardent readers, and has always enjoyed writing. Being a software engineer and an adjunct faculty at a university in Baltimore hardly left any time to read, let alone write. But after moving to Atlanta, she found an opportunity to write for  NRI Pulse  and has been part of the newspaper’s editorial team for several years. She hopes to write about real or fictional people and events in way that makes the reader feel part of the experience, and encourages thinking that goes deeper than the surface.​
• Aditya Rao  is a 2015 graduate of New York University. While his papers have been published in academic journals, he is fond of creative and essay writing. He also maintains a blog:  Bureaumania.wordpress.com .
• Reena Joshi  is the owner of  WriteRight . WriteRight’s  goal is to help all its students from grades 2-12 understand the English concepts tested on all assessments culminating with the SAT and the ACT.  Students are taught to master reading comprehension techniques, conquer confusing vocabulary, and of course, score well on assessments. From constructing basic sentences to constructing SAT and college application essays, WriteRight students learn to consistently write well. The long term goals are high SAT/ACT test scores and acceptance into choice colleges, and so the earlier students start preparation, the better the chances for a higher score, acceptance into choice colleges and scholarships.

  WriteRight has a special offer for NRI Pulse essay contestants and readers:

• All essay contestants – free registration ($100 regular registration) + $50 discount on tuition upon registration for a semester. 
• All readers – free registration upto September 1, 2016 ($100 savings) *must bring the page from NRI Pulse Newspaper that has the essay results on it

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Here’s what young Indians really want from life

"India’s young population is its most valuable asset and most pressing challenge." Image:  REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee

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Sriram gutta, terri chapman, vidisha mishra.

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As the fastest growing economy today, India is home to a fifth of the world's youth. Half of its population of 1.3 billion is below the age of 25, and a quarter is below the age of 14. India’s young population is its most valuable asset and most pressing challenge. It provides India with a unique demographic advantage. But this opportunity will be lost without proportionate investment in human capital development. At the same time, the world today is more dynamic and uncertain than ever before. As India undergoes rapid and concurrent economic, demographic, social and technological shifts, it must ensure that its growth is inclusive and is shared by all sections of the society. India will not be able to realize its true growth potential its youth is not able to participate adequately and productively in its economy.

In order to understand which skills and jobs India’s young people want, and assess whether the current education system meets these aspirations, the World Economic Forum and the Observer Research Foundation collaboratively conducted a survey of more than 5,000 youth in India.

The results indicate that young Indians are ambitious and show greater autonomy in their career decisions. They acknowledge changing skill requirements and are eager to pursue higher education, undergo additional training and enrol in skill development programmes. At the same time, various factors are blocking their ambitions and preventing them from adapting effectively to the changing nature of work. The survey’s insights can inform policies and strategic action to ensure that India’s young people transition smoothly from from education to economic activity. Here are some key findings:

1. Indian youth are independent, optimistic and open to a changing labour market

The influence of family and peers on the career and educational choices of India's youth is in decline. Young people are increasingly seeking productive employment opportunities and career paths that reflect their individual aspirations. Around half of the respondents cite interest in their field of study as the primary reason for their choice, while 19% report being influenced by their families. Moreover, a third of the respondents report being interested in entrepreneurship, and 63% report being highly or moderately interested in supplementing their income with gig work. This shows a degree of openness towards alternative forms of employment.

2. Indian youth need more guidance and career counselling

Many youth report to facing multiple barriers to finding desirable and suitable job opportunities. Factors like information asymmetries on jobs and skills, and lack of guidance for setting realistic career goals and making professional choices, are holding back young Indians. 51% of respondents report that a lack of information about available job opportunities that match their skill sets is a significant barrier. Around 30% report a lack of access to any kind of counselling or mentoring opportunities. 44% of respondents view this as the most important factor in the demand-supply mismatch.

Greater access to career counselling and mentoring services can help to address these misalignments between skills and aspirations, and improve young Indians’ career choices.

3. Young Indians are interested in pursuing higher education and skills development

84% of respondents consider a post-graduate degree as a requirement for their ideal job, while 97% aspire to a degree in higher education. They are also keen on other forms of ongoing education, with 76% of youth reporting that they are very interested in participating in a skills development programme. Increased employment opportunities and higher wages are the main motivators for this goal.

This contrasts with the fact that less than 3% of the country’s total working population is vocationally or professionally trained, compared to between 60-70% among developed countries. India must leverage the optimism of its youth and support the proliferation of high-quality education and training opportunities. At present, there is an acute lack of awareness of available government-run skill development programmes. There is also significant scepticism about their quality and relevance. In order to enhance the uptake of existing programmes, it is critical to make them relevant, affordable and accessible.

4. The private sector must do more to bridge the skills gap

The private sector needs to play a more active role in enhancing the capabilities and skills of India’s youth. India is faced with a paradox: there is significant youth unemployment, and yet the private sector bemoans a lack of adequately skilled and market-ready workers. Notwithstanding the government’s role in providing basic education and training, there is a significant need for greater private sector involvement. This will ensure that training initiatives are demand-driven and impart skills that match industry requirements.

These programmes can be supplemented with career guidance activities with industry professionals, such as talks, seminars and workplace visits.

5. India's socio-cultural norms add further complexity

34% of the surveyed youth report that discriminatory and personal biases related to their marital status, gender, age or family background are a major barrier when looking for a job. 82% of female respondents said their ideal employment would be full-time, disproving the stereotype that women prefer part-time jobs. Similarly, despite the persistent view that household work and unpaid work are suitable and desirable for women, only 1% of surveyed female youth report this as being a desirable option for them.

As the nature of work changes with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, existing gender-based biases are likely to widen if dedicated policies and initiatives are not implemented to address them. Efforts are needed to reduce rather than replicate the biases of today in the future workspace.

6. Social Media and the internet can play a bigger role in effective job-hunting

81% of survey respondents rely on media and internet sources for obtaining information about employment opportunities. This is particularly insightful in light of the finding from the Future of Work, Education and Skills Survey which reveals that just 14%t of surveyed firms reported using online recruitment channels.

The prevalence of social media and internet use among India’s youth presents an opportunity to expand their awareness about education pathways, employment opportunities, skill needs, and available skill development programmes.

For 63% of the respondents, a good salary is the most important criteria for choosing a job. The perception of higher pay and job security is consequential in a majority of Indian youth preferring to work in the public sector and exhibiting scepticism for unconventional employment options like gig work and self-employment. More information on the changing labour market and emerging job roles through internet can help break these stereotypes and boost Indians’ appetite for diverse professional and educational pursuits.

There are steps in the right direction, such as the Indian government’s Start Up India initiative to boost entrepreneurship; the launch of the Skill India mission; the establishment of a dedicated Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; the establishment of industry-led sector skills councils, and the overhaul of the Industrial Training Institutes.

While these initiatives indicate the Indian government’s commitment to skilling initiatives, it is imperative to devise specific strategies that address the schism between youth employment preferences and labour market realities. As the nature of jobs and work changes with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, this gap is likely to widen. Moving forward, collaborations between various government agencies and ministries, the private sector, academic experts, training organizations, civil society and youth themselves will be critical for enhancing young India’s potential. Our ability to meet the next generation’s aspirations is crucial in boosting labour productivity and driving inclusive growth.

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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Growing up in India

Updated 28 September 2023

Subject Experience ,  Myself ,  Child Development

Downloads 37

Category Life ,  Psychology

Topic Childhood

We were a simple family of five. My parents and my two siblings, before we were joined by our cousin who was orphaned at an early age. My mother has not gone through school, and my dad is a Hindu priest and has a college equivalent degree. My younger brother just completed his high school and my little sister is still in Grade 1 school. I have a loving and caring family that I would not trade for anything.

I was born in the U.S Florida, but when I was around one and a half years old, I moved to India while my parents stayed back to earn a living. I lived in India with my grandparents for about seven years. Moving back to the US proved to be such a challenge since I had forgotten how to speak English. It felt like I was learning a new language altogether. I had gotten used to the local dialect and almost treated it like the only existing language.

I attended my early school years in India while I lived with my grandparents. The school was fun but getting there was the problem. We had to walk for two kilometers before we could get to take a bus to school. The walk was often tiring, and the temperatures were always unbearable. We ended up sleeping on the bus on our way to school. Our resilience and perseverance grew at this point since we loved going to school and never complained at all. I had friends at school who were very playful and sharp at the same time. We often excelled. I remember in my last exam to join grade one, I was the best student and was awarded a 'Beauty and the Beast' storybook and some other prices.

In India, we lived in a small town called Gochar. The people around here lived as one community, and as kids, we could play and mingle with others. It was not a closed society like most cities in the U.S. When I was growing up we had a variety of outdoor games, and it would involve kids from all over the neighborhood. We played skipping ropes, football, hide and seek and running competitions; this made us grow into fit and healthy kids. Games were often played between 4 pm and 6 pm. Kids would naturally gather around, and one would think they have automatic timers in their brains. Time had to be strictly kept avoiding punishments. We often played before shower since the dust involved in the games was often immense. We would end up so tired that sleeping in the night never became a problem; it was so much fun. The games we played opened up our minds and helped us with school without even knowing it.

We grew up in an era where the kids belong to the society and could be punished by anyone whatsoever. An adult would not watch a child mess up and let them go unpunished. They would be scolded at the very moment. We were taught to obey adults regardless of whether you knew them or not. That kind of environment shaped me into a fine adult that I am now, obedient and straightforward.

I attended primary school around the home then proceeded to boarding school for my secondary education. Boarding school was not interesting considering we did not have access to goodies and nicely cooked food. The school had a routine to be followed which made life rather apparent than spontaneous. Either way, we had to find ways of living that life and having some fun. Games sessions and weekends were my favorite. We would be free for a while, and one could do something out of the norm like taking a nap in the afternoon. High school life, for a reason, taught me a lot of independence and responsibility. I would quickly look out for myself and handle any crisis that happened to cross my path. It has also built my mental toughness.

We had this small community of very loving and caring people. Life around was excellent and comfortable with routines that we all loved to follow. There was a lot of farming going on within the community. As it is, the staple food in this area was fish and rice. We planted a lot of rice in the fields and fish in the fish ponds. We had seasons of planting, weeding and harvesting each of which was accompanied by small celebrations, especially harvest. One stunning thing about this community was the fact that nobody was considered rich or poor. We were all equals.

Growing up in this environment transformed me into a very responsible and respectful adult. Life instilled within me virtues that would help me live well among different people. I have learned to treat each person as a brother or a sister, always willing to offer help in times of need. I am very grateful for all those who have been a part of my life. It has been worth living.

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Growing up in india.

Author: Bose, Pradip

Keywords: National Memories India Biography

Publisher: The Minerva Associates, Calcutta

Source: Digital Library of India

Type: E-Book

Received From: Digital Library of India

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Essay: Growing up Jewish in India

Being a member of a micro minority has its own share of confusions but a new generation of indian jews has embraced customs of the majority community while continuing to hold on to their own traditions.

My favourite story is about a young TV anchor who could not pronounce my name nor believe that I was a Jew. She was surprised that I looked like an Indian and spoke fluent Gujarati. I suppose it’s because I do not stand out in an Indian crowd and it is difficult to immediately gauge that I am a Bene Israel Jew. The anchor had also collected some misleading information that I had been living in Israel and had only recently arrived in India. She expressed surprise that I had become Indian in such a short time! All this after I gave her an hour-long lecture about the history of Jews in India. She was not convinced. Sometimes this can be annoying and also amusing.

Ever since my childhood and during my teens and subsequently too, with a name like mine, I was often asked about my religion, community, city, village, region and country of origin. When I said, “I am a Bene Israel Jew”, most people behaved like they understood and began talking in superlatives about the agricultural expertise of Israel. From their expressions, I knew, of course, that they were confused. The next question invariably was whether I was from Israel.

Wearily, I’d respond with “I am an Indian”.

Today, there are about 4000 Jews in India, with about 140 in Gujarat, which makes us a mini-microscopic-minority community. About 2000 years ago, while fleeing the persecution of Greek warlords, a community of Jews arrived in India from Israel after their ship was wrecked off the coast of Alibaug in Maharashtra.

Jews have never faced persecution in India and live in peace with other communities. What I like best about being a minority in India is that it allows me to be who I am. We have been a part of India and will continue to be so.

Jews have been living in India for so long that to preserve their Jewish identity, the elders had created a list of rules. Through the years, I have learnt to deal with these restrictions and feel comfortable at the synagogue in Ahmedabad, for New Year celebrations, Yom Kippur prayers, Friday Shabbat prayers or when the Shofar is blown for certain festivals. On these occasions, prayers are chanted in Hebrew, but we speak in Marathi, Gujarati and English.

I feel attracted to Indian festivals, but I often feel like an outsider too.

My outsider syndrome continues to bother me even at the synagogue. As I am not fully conversant with Jewish rituals, there are moments when I feel like a minority within a minority community. Indeed, I am the classic example of the insider who suffers from the outsider syndrome.

When we lived with my grandmother, we kept the Shabbat, celebrated festivals and helped her to prepare the ‘malida’ platter or traditional food, as she made sure that the whole family went to the synagogue for community gatherings.

I was very close to her.

Later, my parents moved out of the old family home and into a small rented house. Suddenly, the warmth and religious traditions that my grandmother had embodied disappeared. These reappeared much later in my life, when I started writing about the Jewish ethos in India. It was during this period that I began researching being Indian and Jewish, which brought me closer to my community.

It was almost like living a secret inner Jewish life.

When I work on a novel, I feel a sense of excitement. I am fascinated by this transformation, which actually started when I wanted to understand the Jewish community, which connects me to the Jewish Diaspora. My interest in Jewish artifacts, rites, rituals, and beliefs intermingled with Indian traditions and entered my novels.

Earlier, during Navratri, Jews could not participate in the raas-garba nor could we wear shimmering chaniya-choli suits, so we would sit on the sidelines aching to be part of the festivities. But in the 1960s, while I was a student at Vadodara’s fine arts college, I cheated and danced in borrowed dresses and even won prizes… So then why not play Holi! Surprisingly, I did not feel guilty about these closely guarded secrets.

Much later in 2012, I felt a sense of victory, when a young Jewish woman convinced her parents to organise a sangeet as part of her wedding celebrations a day before her traditional Jewish mehendi ceremony. Happily, I dressed in a sari to participate in this historical moment when almost everybody came dressed in chaniya-choli suits and the men wore fancy kurtas and churidars .

Since then, the raas-garba , organized in the pavilion next to the synagogue, has become a regular feature.

Through the years, I have also learnt to create confusion about my name. On the telephone, very few people catch the pronunciation and I quickly change Esther to Asha or Astha and peace prevails at the other end of the line. Even the surname helps as I change David to Devi, suddenly becoming Asha Devi! Sometimes, I wish my name was a simple Mina Patel or Lata Shah. Well, whatever my name, as I often say, I am definitely a Good-Jew – Gujju!

Esther David is an author. Her latest book is Bene Apetit; The Cuisine of Indian Jews.

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Children growing up in Indian slums: Challenges and opportunities for new urban imaginations

The physical environments of slums present many challenges to residents, particularly children. Even so, there are thriving communities in slums with strong social and economic networks. This article looks at the reality of growing up in slums in Delhi, and explores how well-intentioned slum improvement efforts can fail children. It concludes by identifying ways in which India’s policy environment could support efforts to make slum improvement programmes more child-friendly.

Children growing up in slums experience a childhood that often defies the imagination of both the ‘innocent childhood’ proponents and the ‘universal childhood’ advocates. The slums typically lack proper sanitation, safe drinking water, or systematic garbage collection; there is usually a severe shortage of space inside the houses where the children live, and no public spaces dedicated to their use. But that does not mean that these children have no childhood, only a different kind of childhood that sees them playing on rough, uneven ground, taking on multiple roles in everyday life, and sharing responsibilities with adults in domestic and public spaces in the community.

Some years ago I spent a year working closely with and observing children in Nizamuddin Basti, an 800-year-old historic settlement in the heart of central New Delhi best known for its famous Sufi shrine, the Nizamuddin Dargah. This internationally renowned spiritual centre is also a prominent cultural and philanthropic institution for the community and the city. The Basti is now considered an urban village with a historic core and layers of slums on its periphery. A predominantly Muslim community, Nizamuddin Basti and its slums together comprise ten notional precincts. These precincts were first delineated by children who worked with the local NGO, the Hope Project, in a community mapping exercise; the ngo is using the map to develop strategies for the different precincts of the Basti, given the different profiles of their residents (long-term residents vs. new migrants, regional origin, language and customs, and professions).

Children were to be seen everywhere as one entered the Basti. They played in the parks that wrapped the Basti on the western side to hide it from the gaze of the city. They played on the rough ground and vacant lots dotted with graves, in the open spaces in the centre where garbage was manually sorted. The parked rickshaws, vending carts, cars and bikes all served as play props in the streets. As soon as they could walk, children could be seen outdoors walking around mostly barefoot, climbing on debris and petting goats that freely roamed around. Girls as young as 5 carried infants and toddlers on their hip and moved around freely in the narrow pedestrian bylanes of the village, visiting shops for sweets and the houses of friends down the street. Many houses open out directly onto the street through a doorway that often is nothing more than a 5-foot-high opening in a wall. Infants reach out of these holes in the wall and interact with passers-by.

The Basti has an approximate population of 15,000, based on the counting done by the Hope Project 3 years ago. Since a major focus of the Hope Project’s admirable work was on health and education, I looked up the data on child health as recorded in the outpatient registers of the paediatric unit. Just over 5000 children aged under 14 years live in the Basti. For common ailments the majority of households visit the Hope Dispensary, with the next most commonly visited medical facilities being private doctors and government hospitals and dispensaries (Prerana, 2007). The most common childhood diseases reported at the Hope Project are respiratory diseases, diarrhoea, gastritis, intestinal worms, anaemia, scabies, and ringworm. An adverse living environment characterised by overcrowding, lack of ventilation in homes, and inadequate sanitation, water supply and water storage facilities no doubt contributes to the childhood diseases reported.

However, despite a largely unplanned physical environment, with debris and garbage generously strewn around, very few serious injuries occur in the public domain. Only a few superficial cuts were reported. I too had noticed that during my year-long observation in the Basti. In fact, the only accident I witnessed involved play equipment provided by the government in front of the municipal school.

The stories of Rani and Wahida

Rani’s family lived in one of the peripheral slums of the Basti called Nizam Nagar, one of the most deprived precincts and also the most crowded. The average monthly income of a family there barely exceeds 30 euros. Spread over about an acre, this informal housing accommodates 4458 people. Rani lived with her mother, two unmarried sisters and a married sister and her family in their two rooms arranged one on top of the other. The married sister occupied the top room. Half of the bottom room was occupied by a bed and the remaining floor space at the back was used for cooking, storage and for sitting around. The room had windowless walls on three sides and only opened onto the street in front. Rani’s mother had carved out a small shop selling cigarettes in the front of the room. There was no attached toilet or any piped water supply in this house.

When she was 11 years old, Rani kept a journal for me for a week, recording her day before she went to sleep. This account of her life provides some valuable glimpses about the multiple roles a girl child plays in this community. Rani was responsible for fetching milk for tea for her family every morning from Hasan Bhai’s tea stall. She would meet and chat with friends and neighbours here. In poor families such as hers, food is purchased on a daily basis, as there are no refrigerators for storing groceries.

Rani was a good practising Muslim. She washed herself in the morning and routinely offered all five prayers, or namaz, throughout the day. She called on her friend Meher, who lived around the corner, every morning and walked with her to the Hope Project’s non-formal school for adolescent girls. Rani performed daily household chores and shopping for the family, fetching cigarettes, snacks and groceries both for her mother’s shop and for home. Rani acted as guardian to her little niece, playing with her, feeding her, looking after her. She was a part-time shopkeeper, and sat in their small house-front shop to relieve her mother of her shopkeeping duties for some time every day.

Rani was a good student; other girls came to her for homework help. She bought sweets with small change, liked to play with domestic pets and with friends in the street in front of her house, in the nearby open spaces including the yard of the public toilet across from her house, in Meher’s back yard, and in the city park that was just outside the wall that separated her street from the park. Rani’s two older unmarried sisters took care of the cooking, cleaning and washing.

Rani had a friend called Wahida – unlike her, an orphan who had grown up in many households. Wahida split her time between the houses of her older siblings, her grandmother and her friend Rani’s family in Nizam Nagar. Her days were filled with household chores, besides attending the non-formal Hope school and evening religious studies. Wahida also attended a vocational training course in tailoring and sewing every afternoon in the community centre across from Nizam Nagar.

Both Rani and Wahida had grown up in severe poverty. Rani’s father had died of a drug overdose after reducing the family to penury. Rani’s mother barely earned a dollar a day from her shop and found it difficult to pay even the two rupees that would have bought Rani a hot lunch at school. Wahida had no one to watch over her and depended on charity for meals and a roof for the night. Yet both girls not only survived but thrived in this slum which represents one of the best examples of social capital in an urban neighbourhood. Seven years later, Rani and Wahida have both successfully completed school and are undergoing training as nursery teachers. Wahida is also working as an assistant to a city physiotherapist.

Slum redevelopment with children in mind

There are many such stories in Nizamuddin Basti that speak to the power of family and community social capital in aiding the well-being and future prospects of children. The many everyday places in Nizam Nagar and the larger Nizamuddin Basti that allow children like Rani and Wahida to be active social participants in everyday life are the stuff that communities are made of.

When families are driven out of their slums and taken by truckloads to a resettlement site, they are not only driven away from their homes but also from their communities. Sadly, this is the reality of how many cities are tackling slum renewal – notably Delhi, where families living in squatter settlements are routinely displaced from their squatter locations to make way for profitable new developments and are relocated to barren resettlement sites typically outside the city. Delhi has 44 such resettlement colonies, with a total population estimated to be 1.8 million (Government of Delhi, 2002). Less than 1% of the land occupied by squatters is privately owned (Kundu, 2004), implying that if there were political will, the state could easily provide adequate housing with secure tenure inside the city.

Most slum redevelopment assumes that overall slum improvement processes will automatically benefit children. This is unfortunately not always true. Even the best of initiatives that work on improving sanitation – such as through providing more public toilets, as is currently happening in Nizamuddin Basti – do not take children’s needs into account. Public toilets are scary places for children and with long adult queues, children have to wait a long time for their turn. These are reasons why children can often be seen to squat in the space outside the toilet block or in the street right outside their homes.

The new toilet blocks were part of a larger improvement plan in the Basti that did not adequately consider children. For example, the Basti improvement plan ostensibly benefited children by creating two new landscaped parks. One of them was exclusively for women and children, although it opened its secure gates for only a few hours in the evenings. (Recently a local NGO negotiated access at least once a week outside of the evening hours for children who are part of their programmes.) The other new park replaced a large, central open space in the heart of the community, which was used for sorting scrap. As most residents in the peripheral slums of the Basti depend on this business for a livelihood, the unavailability of this space meant sorting scrap at home. As a result, the home environment is now extremely hazardous for children. These kinds of problems result when communities are not made partners in development, and solutions instead come from a myopic outside view.

In Khirkee, another urban village in Delhi south of the Nizamuddin Basti, children living in a small slum cluster in neighbouring Panchshel Vihar had access to only one badly maintained park, even though the local area had several landscaped parks. When I asked 12-year-old Rinki, who was a play leader of the slum children, what sort of improvements she would recommend for the park, she told me, ‘Please don’t do anything otherwise we will not be able to play here any more.’ This poignantly sums up the attitude of the city. While in theory investment in parks is seen as benefiting children, in practice the temptation is to protect the newly beautified parks from slum kids, who are viewed as vandals. In some communities, slum children are actively evicted from parks, which defeats the purpose of providing them. Rules on park use also discourage imaginative play – when we observed children in landscaped, rule-bound parks that kept out slum children, we counted them playing 12 to 16 different games. In contrast, the slum children from Panchsheel Vihar were counted playing 34 different games in the badly maintained park in Khirkee.

Children use the public realm of neighbourhoods not only for playing but for many other activities including privacy needs and concealing secrets. This requires a range of spaces of different scales and character. Well-designed parks are no doubt very desirable for slum kids, but throughout the day more play happens in the streets and informal open spaces of the neighbourhood than in formal parks. Children in both Nizamuddin Basti and Khirkee referred to the importance of having friendly adults around their play territories, which tells us we need to create new, more imaginative solutions for children’s play than resource-intensive parks which inevitably become sites of conflict between different user groups.

Children from both communities routinely sought out open spaces in the local area outside their neighbourhoods. This points to the importance of integrating slums with the wider local area and securing access to open-space resources for slum children outside of the slum. The importance of community-level open spaces for children living in slums cannot be overemphasised. As there is little opportunity for innovation within the 12.5 m2of cramped private domestic space that Delhi slum dwellers are typically allocated, children in slums, including very small children, spend a large portion of their day outdoors. The cleanliness, safety and friendliness of the outdoor spaces in a slum thus play an important role in the health and well-being of children. Slum improvement plans will work better for children if we consider environmental improvements to the slum neighbourhood as a whole by involving children and by considering slums to be an integral part of the city.

The policy environment in India

India deals with slums only through poverty alleviation strategies. Since the 1980s, every Five Year Plan has included strategies targeting the environmental improvement of urban slums through provision of basic services including water supply, sanitation, night shelters and employment opportunities. But as urban slum growth is outpacing urban growth by a wide margin (UNDP, 2007), the living conditions of more than a 100 million urban slum dwellers in India remain vulnerable.

Is it possible to create a new imagination of slum development within the current policy environment of India? Following the liberalisation of India’s economy in 1991, two landmark events unfolded which may enable this:

• the 74th Constitutional Amendment of 1992, which proposes that urban local bodies (ULBs) should have a direct stake in urban poverty alleviation and slum improvement and upgrading, with participation of citizens, and
• the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), launched in December 2005, which embodies the principles of the 74th Constitutional Amendment. jnnurm outlines a vision for improving quality of life in cities and promoting inclusive growth, through substantial central financial assistance to cities for infrastructure and capacity development for improved governance and slum development through Basic Services to the Urban Poor. These include security of tenure at affordable prices, improved housing, water supply, sanitation, education, health and social security.

In promoting an integrated approach to planned urban development and the provision of basic services to the urban poor, JNNURM can perhaps reduce some of the existing lapses in planning and service delivery and improve living conditions for the urban poor in a fairer manner. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation has recently launched the National Urban Poverty Reduction Strategy (2010–2020): ‘A New Deal for the Urban Poor – Slum Free Cities’, which adopts a multi-pronged approach to reducing urban poverty involving measures such as slum renewal and redevelopment (Mathur, 2009). This calls for developing Slum Free Cities plans for some 30 cities which have been selected for a ‘National Slum Free City Campaign’. None of the national policies on poverty has any focus on children’s well-being or development, however, or on slums as vibrant neighbourhoods that offer affordable housing to Indian citizens.

Slum Free Cities is operationalised through a government scheme called  Rajiv Awas Yojana  (RAY), using JNNURM support. RAY sees slum settlements as spatial entities that can be identified, targeted and reached through the following development options:

• slum improvement:  extending infrastructure in the slums where residents have themselves constructed incremental housing
• slum upgrading:  extending infrastructure in the slums along with facilitation of housing unit upgrading, to support incremental housing
• slum redevelopment:  in-situ redevelopment of the entire slum after demolition of the existing built structures
• slum resettlement:  in case of untenable slums, to be rehabilitated on alternative sites.

RAY provides detailed guidelines for spatial analysis and situation assessment and recommends a participative process, involving slum communities with the help of ngos and community-based organisations active in the area of slum housing and development, to identify possible development options. Slum Free Cities provides an opportunity for new thinking, as well as posing a problem to municipalities and ngos who may not have the technical knowledge and imagination to create innovative community-driven solutions.

As the well-being of children – in terms of health, nutrition, education and protection – is closely connected to the quality of physical living environments and to the delivery of and access to services, children must be central to slum improvement programmes. Slum improvements funded by jnnurm should be used to make Indian cities child-friendly, and build on the assets of intricate social networks, inherent walkability and mixed uses which are considered by new planning theories to be vital in making neighbourhoods sustainable (Neuwirth, 2005; Brugman, 2009).

Slum Free Cities planning guidelines already incorporate many elements that could secure children’s right to an adequate standard of living, such as secure tenure, improved housing, reliable services and access to health and education. However, intentions are often not translated into action. Children’s direct participation in local area planning and design for slum improvements would be a good step forward in creating child-friendly cities in India. Action for Children’s Environments (ACE) is currently working on a study supported by the Bernard van Leer Foundation to understand how the first phase of JNNURM-funded slum improvements have affected children, with the aim of informing these policies and improving the practice of planning and implementation of projects to make slum redevelopment more child-friendly.

References can be found in the PDF version of this article .

Also in this edition of Early Childhood Matters

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How is the start up culture in india boosting and paving the entrepreneurial route in the coming years.

Neeraj Joshi

Neeraj Joshi is the founder of Pushstart, India’s most active and trusted community of 25K+ Entrepreneurs.

India has witnessed a massive surge in the start-up world, since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. Many working professionals decided to quit their job and pursue their passion projects, to create a sustainable business model for the new digital world. This led to an ‘entrepreneurial wave’ in the country. This wave has been encouraged by various start-up communities and initiatives, to promote the growth of entrepreneurship in India. This change was supported by the Government of India and their various policies around entrepreneurship and start-ups, which led to an increase in the start-up culture of the nation.

Many rising start-up founders are receiving guidance from EdTech platforms, communities and other sources, which is empowering them on the path towards building their dream businesses. Budding entrepreneurs are encouraged to pursue their business ideas and create a sustainable ecosystem for the business to grow and evolve into a brand. The traditional job market has seen a massive transformation, wherein people are moving away from the typical 9-5 job dynamic and building their own businesses based on their passions, vision and mission.

Many online platforms create content around entrepreneurship, which has encouraged people to start their own businesses. Entrepreneurs are empowered creating ideas that carve out their identity to become powerful problem-solvers at the global level. The value addition for entrepreneurs is the increasing knowdledge around the following – demonstrating the process of striking business deals, importance of negotiation in deals, process of materialising ideas into sustainable business models, empowering motive of networking in the community and the inventive solutions to the everyday problems of the world. The entrepreneurial journey is not in the success stories, but in the journey which has a combination of a few successes and multiple failures. 

The biggest challenge faced by the start-up community was of creating a mindset shift in the society. Entrepreneurship was considered very superficial and looked down upon. With the current times, mindset shift has taken place among the Indian masses. Technology has also been highlighted and revolutionised the way businesses function. The digital world has resulted in scaling businesses at the global level, which has created innovative business solutions in today’s era. The focus is on creating change at the local level and scaling up with the required investment and proper mentoring to reach the global markets. The earlier apprehensions towards start-ups are now turning into encouragement and support by families. Parents are encouraging children to pursue their own start-ups and are willing to invest in the same.

With the ongoing scenario, around 500 million people in ages 15-44 years are moving towards entrepreneurship as their career. This has created a massive shift towards ‘mass entrepreneurship’. The shift from job seekers to job creators, will result in a very positive impact for the economy as a whole. With an increase in start-up activities, funding is now becoming a trend. Entrepreneurs are motivated to approach investors to fund their business and receive expert guidance in their entrepreneurial journey. This is leading to an increase in the business of funding and steering up the economy in the positive direction. 

With the advent of the start-up culture, evolution has now become more about innovative solutions to solve regular problems of the world. There is a need to educate the masses and train them to think of growth and evolution. With business and investment shows and forums, we are hopeful that the start-up culture of India evolves into a community of ever-inspiring creators.

With these positive changes, entrepreneurs are now empowered to take charge of the present and script a prosperous future for themselves and for India at a global level. 

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Essay on Population Growth in India

Students are often asked to write an essay on Population Growth in India in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Population Growth in India

Introduction.

India, the second most populous country globally, has seen significant population growth over the years. This growth has both benefits and challenges.

Causes of Growth

Several factors contribute to India’s population growth, including high birth rates, declining mortality rates, and increased life expectancy due to medical advancements.

Impacts of Growth

Population growth affects various aspects of society. It can strain resources, increase unemployment, and exacerbate poverty. However, it also provides a large workforce, boosting economic growth.

In conclusion, while population growth presents certain challenges, effective planning and policy-making can turn it into an asset for the nation.

250 Words Essay on Population Growth in India

India, the second most populous country in the world, is experiencing explosive population growth. This growth, while indicative of improved health services, has significant repercussions on the country’s socio-economic fabric.

Causes of Population Growth

The primary cause of this surge is a decrease in mortality rates due to advancements in medical sciences and an increase in birth rates. Socio-cultural factors such as the preference for a male child, leading to larger families, also contribute.

Impacts of Population Growth

The burgeoning population exerts immense pressure on India’s limited resources, leading to issues like unemployment, poverty, and inadequate public health and education services. It also poses a severe threat to the environment due to overexploitation of natural resources.

Population Control Measures

India has implemented various population control measures like family planning and awareness programs. However, their effectiveness is often limited by socio-cultural barriers and lack of access to resources in rural areas.

While population growth signifies a healthy populace, it is imperative for India to check this growth to prevent socio-economic and environmental crises. This requires comprehensive strategies that address not just the symptoms but the root causes of population growth, including societal norms and access to resources.

500 Words Essay on Population Growth in India

India, the second most populous country in the world, is experiencing significant population growth. With over 1.3 billion people, the demographic changes in India are influencing its social, economic, and environmental dynamics. This essay explores the causes, implications, and potential solutions to the population growth in India.

The primary cause of India’s population growth is the decline in death rates. With advancements in healthcare and technology, life expectancy has improved, leading to a larger ageing population. Furthermore, despite efforts to promote family planning, the fertility rate remains high in many regions, particularly in rural areas. This is due to a lack of education, socio-cultural norms, and limited access to contraception.

Implications of Population Growth

The population surge in India brings both challenges and opportunities. On one side, it places immense pressure on resources such as water, food, and land. Rapid urbanization and the subsequent strain on infrastructure, including housing, sanitation, and transportation, are notable issues. Additionally, it exacerbates environmental degradation and climate change.

On the other hand, a large population signifies a vast labor force, which, if harnessed correctly, could propel economic growth. However, this demographic dividend can only be realized if the population is healthy, educated, and skilled, which is a challenge in itself given the current state of India’s public services.

In response to the population growth, the Indian government has implemented several measures. Family planning programs, awareness campaigns about contraception, and efforts to improve women’s education and empowerment have been at the forefront. However, these initiatives have not been uniformly successful across the country.

The Way Forward

Addressing population growth requires a multifaceted approach. Firstly, it is essential to improve the quality of education and healthcare, particularly in rural and marginalized areas. This includes comprehensive sex education and easy access to contraception to enable informed family planning decisions.

Secondly, empowering women through education and employment opportunities is crucial. Women who are educated and economically independent tend to have fewer children and invest more in their wellbeing, contributing to a decline in population growth.

Finally, it is vital to foster sustainable development and resource management to mitigate the environmental impact of population growth. This includes promoting green technologies, sustainable agriculture, and efficient use of water and energy.

India’s population growth is a complex issue with deep-rooted socio-cultural, economic, and environmental implications. While it presents significant challenges, it also offers opportunities if managed effectively. A combination of education, healthcare improvement, women’s empowerment, and sustainable development can help India navigate its demographic transition and harness its potential demographic dividend.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on National Festivals of India
• Essay on My India My Pride
• Essay on Life in an Indian Village

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

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Essays About Growing Up: 5 Examples and 7 Prompts

Essays about growing up help us view and understand various experiences from different perspectives. Check out our top examples and prompts for your writing.

How do you know when you’ve finally grown up? Me, it happened when I was in high school. I realized I matured when I had no qualms about looking for ways to help my family financially. I didn’t think I had a choice, but at the same time, I desperately wanted to aid my parents in ensuring we had food on the table. 

I was a fast food crew member, a librarian, and many other odd jobs I could talk about for hours. Some judge my parents’ poor financial literacy when I tell my stories, but I never did. All of it was a part of my growing up; without these experiences, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. 

Growing up is a unique experience for every person, influenced by our surroundings and influences. With so many variables, each person has their own story about growing up; take a look below to see the best example and prompts to begin writing your own. You might also like these essays about youth .

5 Essay Examples

1. social influences on children’s growing up by anonymous on ivypanda.com, 2. growing up in the 626 by katie gee salisbury, 3. growing up in poverty determines the person’s fate by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 4. growing up on the streets by writer bernadette, 5. growing up with hearing loss by anonymous on ivypanda.com, 1. what does growing up mean, 2. the effect of my environment on my growth, 3. growing up rich or poor, 4. family values and growing up, 5. growing up with siblings, 6. your best memories growing up, 7. changes while growing up.

“Human growth and development is a complicated process which is inevitably impacted upon by socioeconomic circumstances within which an individual is growing up.”

To demonstrate the social influences that can impact a child’s experiences growing up, the essay offers several credible citations from professionals, such as Damon and Lerner, the writer and editor of “ Handbook of Child Psychology .” It looks at how social factors, such as living conditions, access to resources, and others, can affect a child’s overall development as they grow. Ultimately, the writer believes that parents play a huge role in the development of their children. You can also check out these essays about development .

“Something welled up inside my throat. All of a sudden I felt a burning urgency to stake a claim, to assert that I was one of them, that I too belonged in this group. ‘Hey guys, I’m Chinese too,’ I ventured. A classmate who carpooled with my family was quick to counter, ‘Katie, that doesn’t count.'”

Salisbury shares her experiences as an overachieving Asian-American, focusing on her grievances at being biracial, not connecting to her heritage, and people’s assumption of her being white. She talks about her life in 626, the area code for Arcadia, Southern California, where most Asians reside. At the end of her essay, Salisbury offers facts about herself to the reader, recognizing and accepting every part of herself.

Looking for more? Check out these essays about time .

“Economic mobility is the ability of someone or a family to move up from one income group to another. In the United States, it is at an all-time low and is currently decreasing.”

The author shares their opinion on how a family’s financial situation shapes their children’s future. To back up their claim, the essay provides relevant statistics showing the number of children and families in poverty, alongside its dramatic effects on a child’s overall development. The writer mentions that a family’s economic incompetence can pass on to the children, reducing their chances of receiving a proper education.

“As a young black woman growing up on the hardcore streets of North Philadelphia, you have to strive and fight for everything. The negativity and madness can grab and swallow even the most well-behaved kids.”

Bernadette opens her readers’ eyes to the harsh realities of being a young black woman throughout her essay. However, she also expresses her gratitude to her family, who encouraged her to have a positive mindset. Her parents, who also grew up on the streets of North Philly, were determined to give her and her siblings a proper education. 

She knows how individuals’ environments impact their values ​​and choices, so she fought hard to endure her circumstances. She also notes that the lack of exposure to different social norms results in children having limited thinking and prevents them from entertaining new perspectives. You might be interested in these essays about dream jobs .

“The world is not accommodating to people with hearing disabilities: apart from professionals, barely anyone knows and understands sign language. On top of that, many are merely unaware of the fact that they might be hurting and making a deaf person feel disrespected.”

The essay discusses critical issues in children growing up with hearing impairments. It includes situations that show the difference between a child growing up in an all-deaf family and a non-deaf environment. While parental love and support are essential, deaf parents should consider hearing impairment a gift and be aware of their children’s needs. 

If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

7 Prompts for Essays About Growing Up

Growing up is a continuous sequence where we develop and experience significant changes in our bodies and how we think and feel. It’s the transition between being a child and an adult, so define what childhood and adulthood entail in your essay.

Then, describe how an individual grows up and the indications that they progressed physically and intellectually. For a fun addition to your essay, include questions your readers can answer to see if they have matured.

Many studies show how people’s environments, such as home, community, and school, affect growth. These environments significantly impact an individual’s development through interactions. For this prompt, write about the factors that influence your overall development and explain how you think they affected you. For example, those who studied at a religious school tend to be more conservative.

Money is essential for survival, but only some have easy access. Most people act and make decisions based on how much money they have, which also influences their behavior. In this prompt, cite several situations where money affects parents’ decisions about their children’s needs and wants and how it affects the children as they grow up.

Discuss how financial constraints impact their emotions, perceptions, and choices in life. Choose high, average, and low-income households, then compare and contrast their situations. To create an in-depth analysis, use interview research and statistical data to back up your arguments.

Studies show that children understand rules and have already formed their behaviors and attitudes at seven. Before this age, children are surrounded by relatives who teach them values through experiences within the family. For this prompt, use real-life examples and factual information to discuss the importance of good parenting in instilling good values ​​in children.

Growing up with siblings is an entirely different experience growing up versus being an only child. Use this prompt to explain how having a brother or sister can impact a child’s progress and discuss its pros and cons. For instance, having siblings means the child has more role models and can get more emotional support. However, it can also mean that a child craves more of their parent’s attention. Discuss these points in your essay, and decide the “better” experience, for a fun argumentative essay.

In this essay, choose the best memories you had from childhood to the current day that has contributed significantly to your principles and outlook. Describe each memory and share how it changed you, for better or worse.

Talk about the changes people expect as they grow up. These physical, emotional, or mental changes lead people to act and think more maturely.  Add studies demonstrating the necessity of these changes and recount instances when you realize that you’ve grown up. For example, if before you didn’t care about your spending, now you’re more frugal and learned to save money. For help with your essay, check our round-up of best essay writing apps .

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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Essay on Indian Economy for Students and Children

500+ words essay on indian economy.

India is mainly an agricultural economy . Agricultural activities contribute about 50% of the economy. Agriculture involves growing and selling of crops, poultry, fishing, cattle rearing, and animal husbandry. People in India earn their livelihood by involving themselves in many of these activities. These activities are vital to our economy. The Indian economy has seen major growth in the last few decades. The credit for this boom largely goes to the service sector. Agriculture and associated activities have also been improvised to match the global standards and the export of various food products has seen an upward trend thereby adding to the economic growth. The industrial sector does not lag behind a bit. A number of new large scale, as well as small scale industries, have been set up in recent times and these have also proved to have a positive impact on the Indian economy.

Government’s Role in Economic Growth

Majority of the working Indian population was and is still engaged in the agriculture sector. Growing crops, fishing, poultry and animal husbandry were among the tasks undertaken by them. They manufactured handicraft items that were losing their charm with the introduction of the industrial goods. The demand for these goods began to decline. The agricultural activities also did not pay enough.

The government identified these problems as hindering the economic growth of the country and established policies to curb them. Promotion of cottage industry, providing fair wages to the laborers and providing enough means of livelihood to the people were some of the policies laid by the government for the country’s economic growth.

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The Rise of the Industrial Sector

The government of India also promoted the growth of small scale and large scale industry as it understood that agriculture alone would not be able to help in the country’s economic growth. Many industries have been set up since independence. A large number of people shifted from the agricultural sector to the industrial sector in an attempt to earn better.

Today, we have numerous industries manufacturing a large amount of raw material as well as finished goods. The pharmaceutical industry, iron and steel industry , chemical industry, textile industry, automotive industry, timber industry, jute, and paper industry are among some of the industries which have contributed a great deal in our economic growth.

The Growth in Service Sector

The service sector has also helped in the growth of our country. This sector has seen growth in the last few decades. The privatization of the banking and telecom sectors has a positive impact on the service sector. The tourism and hotel industries are also seeing a gradual growth. As per a recent survey, the service sector is contributing to more than 50% of the country’s economy.

Indian Economy after Demonetization

The worst affected were the people in the rural areas who did not have access to internet and plastic money. This affects many big and small businesses in the country very badly. Several of them were shut down as a result of this. While the short term effects of demonetization were devastating, this decision did have a brighter side when looked at from long term perspective.

The positive impact of demonetization on the Indian economy is a breakdown of black money, the decline in fake currency notes, increase in bank deposits, demonetization stopped the flow of black money in the real estate sector to ensure a fair play, increase in digital transactions, cutting monetary support for terrorist activities.

Many of our industries are cash-driven and sudden demonetization left all these industries starving. Also, many of our small scale, as well as large scale manufacturing industries, suffered huge losses thereby impacting the economy of the country negatively. Many factories and shops had to be shut down. This did not only impact the businesses but also the workers employed there. Several people, especially the laborers, lost their jobs.

The Indian economy undergoes several positive changes since independence. It is growing at a good pace. However, the rural regions of our country are still under-developed. The government must make efforts to improve the economic condition of these areas.

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Essay on India and Economic Growth | Economics

Here is an essay on ‘India and Economic Growth’ for class 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘India and Economic Growth’ especially written for school and college students.

Essay on India and Economic Growth

Though it seems surprising but it is a fact now that after Japanese Miracle, East Asian Miracle and Chinese Miracle there has been now India’s growth miracle, as in the last 15 years (2000 to 2015) India achieved on an average annual growth rate of around 7.3 per cent while China’s average annual growth rate during these fifteen years has been around 10 per cent. More surprisingly, in the four successive years (2004-2008), India achieved average annual growth rate of 9 per cent. Further, in the Eleventh Plan period (2007-12) there has been average annual GDP growth rate of 8 per cent which is the highest achieved in any Indian plan.

It is due to this high rate of GDP growth rate that, according to a World Bank’s International Comparison Program (ICD) report, in 2011 India displaced Japan to become the world’s third biggest economy in terms of GDP (based on purchasing power parity prices) ranked after the U.S. and China. India’s miraculous growth in recent years can be seen from the fact that the previous International Comparison Program (ICP) survey report for the year 2005 had placed India in terms of GDP (at PPP prices) in the 10th place. So between 2005 and 2011 due to higher GDP growth rate India jumped from 10th place to the 3rd place in respect of GDP (at PPP prices).

India’s share in World GDP in terms of PPP was 6.4% in 2011 compared with China’s 14.9 per cent and the U.S. 17.1 per cent, the latest ICP survey showed. The survey covered 199 countries. In 2011 ranking, India’s economy was 37.1 per cent of the U.S. economy compared to 18.9 per cent in 2005. It may be noted that purchasing power parity (PPP) prices are used to compare economies and incomes of the people by adjusting for differences in prices in different countries to make a meaningful comparison. However, it is worthwhile to mention that due to large population, in respect of per capita GDP, even in PPP terms, India’s rank in 2011 was placed at 127 in the 199 country ranking while China’s rank was placed at 99 compared to 12th rank of the U.S.

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India’s Growth Miracle:

Since 2003 Indian economy has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies of the world. In fact, next to China, India’s growth rate from 2003-04 to 2014-15 has been highest in the world. This is often referred to as India’s growth miracle. Before 1980s India’s average growth rate stuck at around 3.6 per cent per annum which Late Prof. Raj Krishna called Hindu rate of growth. In the nineteen eighties India’s average rate of economic growth rose to 5.6 per cent per annum and further in the 1990s and up till 2002-03 (i.e., in 12 years period), India’s average growth rate went up to 6.2% per annum under liberalisation and globalisation of the Indian economy.

But from 2004-05 to 2007-08 India’s average annual growth rate of GDP rose to over 9 per cent per annum. In 2008-09 while the advanced developed countries were experiencing recession (i.e., negative growth), India succeeded in achieving 6.7 per cent growth rate which further rose to 8.6% in 2009-10 and 8.9% in 2010-11.

It will be seen from Table 64.1 (last row) that the GDP growth rate at factor cost (at 2004-05 prices) picked up from the year 2003-04. As compared to average GDP growth rate of around 6.2 per cent in 1991-2003, it was estimated at 8 per cent in 2003-04, 7.1 per cent in 2004-05, 9.5 per cent in 2005-06, 9.6 per cent in 2006-07, and 9.3 per cent in 2007-08. In the year of global financial crisis, it fell to 6.7 per cent in 2008-09. But even then it was well above other countries except China.

The GDP growth rate again rose to 8.6 per cent in 2009-10 and to 8.9 per cent in 2010-11. In the next two years, 2011-12 and 2012-13 there was temporary slowdown in economic growth but in those two years due to adverse global factors, the growth rate declined in all countries including China. However, from 2013-14 onwards, India’s growth rate has picked up while GDP growth rates in other countries of the world remain at lower levels. India’s GDP growth rate has raised to 6.9 per cent in 2013-14 and to 7.3 per cent in 2014-15 and it is estimated to up to 7.6 to 7.8 per cent in 2015-16. With this India which has been the second fastest growing economy of the world since 2003 next only to China will overtake China in 2015-16 and is expected to become the fastest growing economy of the World. India’s growth rate since 2004-05 is depicted in Fig. 64.1.

100 Words Essay On Tourism In India

One of the most well-liked tourist destinations in Asia is India. India's secularism and culture have captivated people from all over the world. India, therefore, has a lot of potential for tourism. India offers a variety of sights to see and things to do. The Himalayan ranges border it in the north and the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean on three sides. India is beautiful because of its picturesque backwaters, hill towns, and landscapes. Thus it has a lot to offer to the tourist. Both skilled and unskilled workers are employed in the tourism sector. It encourages global fraternity and national integration.

200 Words Essay On Tourism In India

India's vast natural and cultural diversity has given it a special place on the global tourism map. The third-largest industry in India is tourism, which directly or indirectly employs about 10 million people.

What Draws Tourists To India

Tourists are drawn to India because of its welcoming customs, diverse way of life, cultural legacy, and vibrant fairs and festivals. From the beginning, the kings of various regions of India constructed opulent palaces, magnificent temples, evergreen gardens, lofty forts, and graves. Tourism-friendly natural and cultural settings abound in India. Some of India's tourist attractions include its stunning beaches, animals, national parks, sanctuaries, snow-covered mountains, rivers, and mountain peaks, as well as its technical parks and places of worship. Tourists are drawn to historical trains, yoga, meditation, Ayurveda, Siddha, and natural health resorts.

My Trip To Kashmir

I had Kashmir on the itinerary for my Navarathri holidays. I took a flight to Srinagar from Delhi. I was thrilled to see the snow-capped mountains and lovely valleys outside my window. I visited Shalimar Bagh and Nishant Bagh that evening before taking a shikara ride on the Dal Lake. There were floating markets on the Dal Lake. In the following days, I went to Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonmarg. After visiting all those places, this trip was one of the best trips of my life. I met a lot of new people who were international tourists coming here for the first time.

500 Words Essay On Tourism In India

India offers a tremendous deal of variety and tourist attractions. Goa is one of many places in India that attracts a lot of foreign visitors.

Benefits Of Tourism

What are the benefits of being an attractive tourist destination for India?

Revenue | People travel to various nations worldwide, which generates revenue for the tourism industry. As we've already seen, tourism is a sizable business with numerous social and economic advantages. It generates employment in the hospitality, dining, and other travel-related sectors. Additionally, it supports operations so visitors can get the most out of their trips.

Creates Jobs | Tourism generate more jobs, which can also be a substantial source of cash for nearby towns. Many new jobs are created businesses in the hotel and agricultural sectors. The housing market is also helped by tourism, which promotes economic growth and job prospects in other sectors.

Economic Growth | For many countries, tourism has been a critical driver of growth. It supports economic expansion and is advantageous for the environment. However, there are numerous strategies to promote tourism. Many nations provide tax rebates or low corporation tax rates as investment incentives. These incentives enable businesses to spend money on building the country's infrastructure for transportation, real estate, and other sectors.

Global Connect | Tourism does just that, it fosters a global connect. New friendships are formed through tourism. Travelling allows tourists to comprehend their destination more thoroughly. Additionally, they get to take in their location's sights, sounds, and flavours.

Global Value | The nation's economy is stimulated by tourism. It offers a wide range of advantages, including new technology, the development of jobs, the sharing ideas, and cultural enrichment. Many nations have begun to invest in the tourism industry to make it simpler for people to travel internationally for personal or professional reasons.

My Holidays In Goa

Last year, I travelled to Goa. I truly enjoyed the trip, which was one of the best of my life. Goa is a fantastic location for a fun vacation. I was eager for the holiday. As I began to enter Goa, I noticed a wonderland. Goodness, what a scene! One thing I was really impressed by was how many green trees there were along the route. The highway was not at all noisy. People gather and start having fun on the beach as the day transitions into the evening.

I also visited Panjim, where I saw a lot of lovely things. I went to a well-known church in Goa. There were plenty of people on the beaches, in restaurants, pubs, etc., and I realised Goa is a very choosing option for tourists around the globe. And thus, it helps to promote Indian tourism.

The travel and tourism sector has expanded significantly in recent years. Due to India's extensive natural and cultural legacy, the tourism industry has enormous growth potential. The tourism sector has several difficulties. These difficulties must be reduced for the industry to reach its full potential. The policies implemented in the tourism industry today will influence tourism in the future.

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India’s oil demand to grow 4% to 5.8 mbd in 2025: OPEC

In its latest oil market report for the month, the cartel highlighted that the growing demand will be supported by increased consumption of gasoline and other petroleum products on the back of growing economic activity..

India’s oil demand is expected to grow to 5.80 million barrels per day in 2025, up 4.1% from the 5.57 million barrels per day projected in 2024, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries said. In its latest oil market report for the month, the cartel highlighted that the growing demand will be supported by increased consumption of gasoline and other petroleum products on the back of growing economic activity.

“Healthy economic momentum in 2024 is expected to continue into 2025. Manufacturing and business activities are expected to be steady, supporting oil demand growth of 227,000 bpd on year, to average 5.80 mbd,” OPEC said in its report.

Transportation and industrial fuels are expected to continue to drive demand, followed by bitumen. LPG (liquified petroleum gas) and naphtha are also expected to support oil demand over the year, the cartel said.

In the current year 2024 itself, the country is guided for a healthy oil demand growth of 228,000 barrels per day. OPEC also sees the current strong economic growth in the country to continue in the second quarter of 2024. “Strong investment is expected to drive economic growth, together with an expansion in manufacturing activity with the government focusing on this sector to further support the economy amid an expected surge in construction. Overall, these factors are expected to bolster India ’s oil demand in 2Q24,” the report said.

Additionally, the country’s gasoline demand is set to get a boost from the annual traditional festivities and increasing transportation activity. The ongoing air travel recovery is also anticipated to support jet and kerosene demand.

In March, the country’s oil demand grew by 169,000 barrels per day from the same period last year but slightly down from growth of 207,000 bpd seen in February. “The largest oil demand increase in March was recorded for LPG, which expanded by 77,000 bpd, up from growth of 47,000 bpd in February,” said the report.

Gasoline also grew by 59,000 bpd, up from an increase of 43,000 bpd seen the previous month supported by healthy mobility.

As per OPEC’s estimates, global oil demand in the first quarter of 2024 is expected to have grown by 2.4 million barrels per day on year. For 2024, the cartel anticipates total world oil demand to reach 104.5 million barrels per day. The growth will be supported by strong air travel demand and healthy road mobility, including trucking, as well as industrial, construction and agricultural activities in non-OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, it said.

India’s crude imports in April averaged 4.9 million barrels per day, recovering by 8% from the decline seen in the previous month. The country’s product imports fell 13% amid lower inflows of LPG.

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The monsters that made me: Growing up disabled, all of my heroes were villains

Horror movies challenged my relationship with myself

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Every monster needs an origin story. Here’s mine.

I was born with a rare condition — radioulnar synostosis — which restricts the movement of my forearms. I am unable to turn my hands over palms up, the way you might accept loose change or splash water on your face or land an uppercut. I have lived with this condition all my life, and yet it wasn’t until my late 20s that I started referring to myself as “disabled.”

This word carries immense baggage, and many of us within the wide spectrum of disability tend to minimize our experiences or, as in my case, suffer from feelings of impostor syndrome. Could be worse , I often tell myself. You don’t deserve to call yourself disabled .

Coming to terms with my disability took a long time, to not only accept my identity, but also to discard the lingering shame and stigma that coincide with being disabled. A major part of this reconciliation was thanks to an unlikely source of solace — horror films.

I’ve been a horror obsessive as long as I can remember, but I only recently figured out how to articulate why the genre resonates so strongly with me. On-screen depictions of deformed, disfigured killers and creatures serve as reflections of my own otherness. The phantasmagoric realm of horror, though dark and violent, provides an outlet for me to express the discomfort, frustration, and anxiety surrounding my corporeal limitations.

From a young age, I subconsciously related to monsters, madmen, and every combination thereof. Many even taught me to frame disability in a positive fashion. The archetypal antagonists from the golden age of horror cinema — the Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster — all underwent a transformation to be imbued with extraordinary, otherworldly gifts. Their differences were a source of power, inverting the traditional view of disability as a hindrance, a burden.

My attraction to horror began innocently enough. There were clamshell VHSes galore at my babysitter’s house, including all the Disney classics, many of which were plenty horrific, like the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence in Fantasia . I carefully studied the imposing figure of Chernabog, the winged, devil-horned demon summoning lost souls from the underworld. To me, he seemed benevolent rather than evil, a counterpoint to the sparkling sunrise that banishes him back to the shadows, an essential element of natural balance.

Disney’s version of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” oddly lumped as a double feature with The Wind in the Willows , presented another kindred spirit — the Headless Horseman. Decked in black and adorned with a blood-red cape, clutching a saber in one hand and a flaming jack-o’-lantern in the other, the Headless Horseman, for me, came to represent the extreme limits of human endurance. A cannonball takes the ill-fated soldier’s head and still his body lingers, perseveres.

Another seminal gateway wasn’t even a horror film. On its surface, The Wizard of Oz is a saccharine Technicolor musical romp, but the dream world its characters inhabit is full of menace — maniacal flying monkeys, spear-wielding Winkie guards, and my favorite, the iconic Wicked Witch of the West. Despite her green flesh and pointy chin, I found her beautiful, alluring, and endlessly more compelling than the picture-perfect Glinda. Astride her broomstick, flinging fireballs, stalking Dorothy and her companions through Oz, the Wicked Witch became the reason I watched an old tape of The Wizard of Oz so many times that the reel snapped.

As she pointed toward the camera with her spindly fingers and sharp nails, I imagined the Wicked Witch was singling me out, inviting me into her world. There, everyone was different, from the Munchkins, notably played by a cast of dwarf actors, to the main trio of the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, who were all “defective” in their own ways, physically and mentally handicapped by the absence of some critical inner faculty. Why Dorothy was so desperate to return to the bleak, monochromatic reality of Depression-era Kansas was beyond me. I would have much preferred to stay in Oz.

By the time I finished elementary school, my tastes sharpened, and I craved harder, more acidic fare. My appetite had been steadily whet by a diet of gory comic books and yellowed Stephen King paperbacks. Cable television in the ’90s was also rife with kindertrauma-inducing spectacle. I was allowed to watch Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Goosebumps , since both were on kid-friendly channels. When left unsupervised, which was often as the child of a single mom who had to work multiple gigs, I could sneak episodes of Tales from the Crypt or X-Files . I knew there was a world of adult horror, and I wanted nothing more than to breach this forbidden zone.

Where to watch the movies mentioned in this piece

• Fantasia : Disney Plus
• Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow : Disney Plus , as a part of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad 
• The Wizard of Oz : Max
• The Evil Dead : For digital rental or purchase on Amazon and Vudu
• The Brood : Max , Criterion Channel
• Castle Freak : Shudder, AMC Plus, and for free with ads on Tubi

I caught glimpses of it at the video rental store, where I was compulsively drawn to the horror section. I scanned the shelves, memorizing titles for future reference, studying the macabre cover art, scrutinizing the stills of sliced throats, hacked limbs, and oozing ectoplasm. Although I wasn’t allowed to take home anything rated R, I soon found loopholes that granted me access to films I was desperate to ingest.

Staying over at a friend’s house, we would wait until the grown-ups were asleep, then flip to HBO (a luxury we could not afford at my own home). It was there I first watched The Evil Dead , a personal landmark of my initiation into splatter flicks. My friend and I insisted we weren’t scared, as we cowered in our sleeping bags, squealing with perverse delight when the first possessed teenager stabbed her friend in the ankle with a pencil. We chattered throughout the movie to compensate for our obvious nerves, but by the time Ash Williams descended into the cellar searching for shotgun shells with a ravenous Deadite on the loose, the two of us had gone mute with fear.

Ash, armed with his trademark chainsaw, was clearly the hero (and himself destined to become an amputee in the sequel), but it was the Deadites who entranced me. When the demons seized control, the bodily degradation took effect. First, the teenagers’ eyes went white, and before long, their flesh wrinkled, turned sallow, decayed, bile and pus dripping from spontaneous lacerations. I had never witnessed anything so utterly bloodsoaked, resplendent in viscera, a film that relished in the ways a body can be corrupted.

Bodies are frightfully fragile, and we are all one small step away from an accident or illness that can permanently debilitate. Few filmmakers understand the body’s capacity for biological horror more than David Cronenberg , whose oeuvre introduced me to a world where disability is infused with latent eroticism and regenerative potential.

In high school, I got a job at the same video rental store I prowled as a kid. Now I had the freedom to take home whatever I pleased. The older guys who managed the shop would recommend titles to test my limits — Salò , Cannibal Holocaust , Irreversible . Cocksure teenager that I was, enduring “the most fucked up movie ever made” became my solemn quest. But disturbing or violent as they may be, few video nasties were capable of truly scaring me. Knowing I was a devotee of both horror and sci-fi, one of the clerks suggested I check out Cronenberg, so I took a chance on The Brood .

I was deeply unsettled by the story of an estranged couple fighting over custody of their daughter. What frighted me wasn’t the deformed, dwarflike progeny — birthed by the ex-wife and telekinetically driven to brutally murder anyone who crossed her. The broodlings were devoted to their mother, as was I, and would do anything to protect her. What shook me was Cronenberg’s metaphorical treatment of divorce, especially after watching my own parents’ messy split. The rupturing of a family resulting in physiological consequences illustrated the link between body and mind, a relationship of which I was all too aware, having dealt with depression as long as I could remember.

For many people with disabilities, physical and mental anguish are synonymous, feeding into one another. Feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and alienation frequently accompany disability. More often than not, disability is chronic, permanent, and insoluble. It can be mitigated, people can adapt, but full-blown cures are elusive. My disability is one such case. I may have accepted this reality, come to terms with my fate, but the journey has not been without frustration, anger, and despair — the monster’s currency.

This explains in part why monsters act as they do. Pain begets pain. Violence begets violence. Fear begets fear. As such, the monster embodies the way we perpetuate trauma, wherein the victim becomes the aggressor. This is why we sympathize with Frankenstein’s monster or the Wolfman, because we understand that they were not born to be monsters — they were made that way by forces beyond their control.

Which is precisely why I cannot totally fault my all-time favorite Lovecraftian abomination, the titular Castle Freak from Stuart Gordon’s low-budget opus, another film I chanced upon at the video rental store. The freak is imprisoned from childhood by his deranged mother, routinely tortured until his face and body are a tapestry of grotesque wounds and scars. He escapes the confines of his dungeon and spies on the American family who has moved into his home, taking a special liking to the couple’s blind daughter.

While the freak wastes no time eviscerating unlucky victims, the lecherous, alcoholic father, played by the incomparable Jeffrey Combs, is no less redeemable. The freak’s feral nature is the byproduct of a lifetime’s abuse. The father, by contrast, has no excuse. Watching this film for the first time, I empathized with the freak and thought of my innate freakishness and the times I’ve lashed out or been cruel. What was my excuse?

Even as the maimed, distorted bodies of creatures like the Castle Freak or the Brood or the Deadites or the Wicked Witch mirrored real-world disabilities and offered me an escape, a safe environment where it was appropriate to root for the villain, I realized that I didn’t want to hurt people, to injure others as I’d been, whether physically or mentally. And more than anything, I was determined not to use my disability as a scapegoat, to behave like a monster and blame it on the way I was born.

Strange as it sounds, I learned to take ownership of my mistakes and embrace my faults through horror films, to forgo hiding behind a mask like the boogeymen in slasher movies. Horror demands that we not avert our gaze from “abnormal” bodies. It challenges our prejudices, our preconceptions. These are films that celebrate disfigurement and deformity instead of shunning it. I reject the notion that horror merely co-opts disability as a cheap scare tactic. When I watch a scary movie, I do not see exploitation — I see exaltation, the disabled not as demonic but as divine.

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I was accepted to Yale. Here's everything I included in my successful Ivy League application.

• I got into Yale University after submitting a successful college application.
• I included my SAT score and high GPA in the application, along with an essay about my culture.

I recently reviewed my Yale admissions file after being a student there for three years. It was strange but enlightening to read what the admissions officers really thought of my application.

Since then, many people have respectfully requested to hear about my stats, extracurriculars , and essays.

I believe that everyone's college application journey is unique and that mine is just one sample, but I equally understand the urge to hear about other people's experiences. I devoured hundreds of college decision reactions on YouTube just three years ago, hoping to find that secret formula.

So, I'm now sharing a deeper look into my college application. But I want to first emphasize that as complicated and stressful as the process of applying to college may be, the best application you can ever show others will be the one you enjoy writing the most. I know I enjoyed every second of writing mine.

My GPA and standardized test scores were important factors in my application

With colleges such as Yale and Dartmouth reinstating standardized testing requirements , the reality is that academics will always be the first line of assessment for admission.

The GPA I submitted to Yale was 98.23/100. An admissions officer commended my GPA in the context of my financially underprivileged upbringing.

I also tried to take the most rigorous workload possible while also prioritizing my mental health , ultimately sending in six AP test scores. My SAT score was 1590.

I credit a lot of my academic achievements to the fact that I surrounded myself with peers who were very serious about their education.

My pre-calculus teacher's recommendation — the one that the admissions team rated higher — emphasized that I held the second highest grade in her class over her 20-year teaching career.

I tried to highlight my passions in my extracurriculars

My activities were a confusing mosaic of interests and impulses, but one that perfectly captured this 17-year-old boy who was still very unsure about who he was and what he wanted.

I researched human visual perception at a local community college , I performed spoken word poetry, and I hit about 80% of the notes in the choir (on a good day).

My primary extracurricular, however, was the one I connected with most. At the start of the pandemic, I founded a language-learning program for children called "Spanish Meets You." I used the proceeds I made from the program, which featured tutoring and pen-palling services, to host community giveaways of essential health supplies — such as masks, face shields, and hand sanitizer.

"Spanish Meets You" evolved from my experience growing up in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, which was predominantly Hispanic and Asian. I loved going to cookouts and finding a diligent spread of both spicy tamales and fried rice. Despite our cultural differences , the two groups were united in our challenges and our respect for each other.

When I submitted my application, I worried that I didn't have a coherent theme for my extracurriculars, nor enough leadership — but based on the admissions team's comments, my genuine passion for one or two activities mattered in the end.

I wanted to capture who I truly am in my college essay

When I started drafting my essay, I knew I wanted to capture what was unextractable from my résumé: my curiosity, thick skin, and mistakes.

I decided to make the topic of my college essay about Chinese New Year, a holiday I celebrated with my 14 floormates in this tiny Brooklyn apartment building that we all called home for two decades. Every year, I would wait for my father by the door with mandarins, only to be disappointed by his absence.

Ultimately, however, I learned to enjoy this holiday — even if my celebration was unorthodox. My 14 floormates and I are unrelated by blood, but I remember we would gather over food every holiday, tell stories, and play a game of JENGA. Their laughter still ricochets in my ears hundreds of miles away as I now sit in my college dorm room , wrapping up my junior year.

I tried not to overthink the other essay questions

I would jot down whatever came to mind in the first 30 seconds, asking myself: "How would 7-year-old Brian answer this?"

Whenever I took too long to craft a response, it was a sign that I was probably sacrificing genuineness to make a false good impression.

One of the essays asked about my favorite intellectual concept. Instead of showing off by detailing some obscure scientific theory, I moved forward with writing about the diversity of motherhood in the animal kingdom, tying it back to my close relationship with my own mother.

My application was focused on proving how I would fit into the Yale community

Colleges are searching for those who will enrich the lives of their peers in different ways.

Therefore, in my application, I tried to highlight all the parts of me that would prove to Yale I would benefit their campus and their students. In doing so, I was accepted and met students doing just that.

One of my friends, for instance, is studying law. She also loves to rap and surprise her friends with midnight ice cream. Another is a science journalist who gives the best dating advice .

I would say Yale wouldn't be home even if one of them were missing. Everyone is here; everyone ends up where they are.

For students applying to Ivy League schools , I implore you to tell your dynamic, unique story — to think about how your rhythm will fold into a community's song.

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The Possible Collapse of the U.S. Home Insurance System

A times investigation found climate change may now be a concern for every homeowner in the country..

Hosted by Sabrina Tavernise

Featuring Christopher Flavelle

Produced by Nina Feldman ,  Shannon M. Lin and Jessica Cheung

Edited by MJ Davis Lin

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Across the United States, more frequent extreme weather is starting to cause the home insurance market to buckle, even for those who have paid their premiums dutifully year after year.

Christopher Flavelle, a climate reporter, discusses a Times investigation into one of the most consequential effects of the changes.

On today’s episode

Christopher Flavelle , a climate change reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading

As American insurers bleed cash from climate shocks , homeowners lose.

See how the home insurance crunch affects the market in each state .

Here are four takeaways from The Times’s investigation.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Christopher Flavelle contributed reporting.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Christopher Flavelle is a Times reporter who writes about how the United States is trying to adapt to the effects of climate change. More about Christopher Flavelle

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I was one of 5 siblings. It's a big reason I chose to have an only child.

• I knew very shortly after having my son that I was done having children. 
• I was the middle child of five siblings and often felt overlooked. 
• I didn't want my son to have to deal with sibling rivalry like I did. 

I remember giving birth to my son and telling my family, very early in my motherhood journey, that I was one and done .

Growing up as the middle child among five siblings, I experienced unfair comparisons. I also had to always consider other people's needs before mine, especially those of my siblings. So if I wanted to have something or do something but they didn't, I became the odd kid out.

This ultimately influenced my decision to have an only child because I wanted my son to not only be able to explore his own interests, but not be stifled in any way because there would have to be a choice between him and a sibling.

Seven years into parenting, I have come to appreciate the profound impact my upbringing had on my parenting approach, and the importance of being able to give my son both undivided attention and allow him to blossom without constant comparison.

I often felt overlooked

Growing up in a house with seven people meant that I sometimes felt overlooked, and we struggled financially at times.

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Many of my family's financial constraints started once my two youngest siblings joined the family. As a result, our family faced numerous hardships that left a lasting imprint on my psyche. This included less opportunities to partake in extracurricular activities, get new or trendy toys or clothes, and even condensed living that went from an entire home with plenty of space to a townhome where everyone felt on top of one another.

However, perhaps the most enduring challenge I encountered was the persistent sense of being unfairly compared to my siblings.

There was an unspoken competition between us siblings

In a household teeming with personalities and aspirations, I often found myself measured against my siblings and vice versa, even when we each had unique talents and qualities.

There seemed to be an unspoken competition that affected how we interacted and it didn't feel like it was fair to any of us. I didn't want to be faulted for not being a grade-A scholar or my siblings being faulted for things like being introverted.

When I decided to become a mom, I simply wanted to raise my son in a different way. In addition, I gave birth abroad and had always planned on raising my son as a third-culture kid, specifically due to how young Black children are treated and perceived in the US.

Being abroad without the support of extended family only reinforced my commitment to creating a nurturing and supportive environment for my son. I understood that this journey would demand more of me because I had no relatives or close loved ones nearby, but I was prepared to embrace the challenge wholeheartedly.

I recognize the importance of fostering a strong sense of self-esteem and confidence in my son, no matter what because I was often led to be a people pleaser and insecure due to not having a true sense of myself. Through encouragement and affirmation, I seek to continue to nurture his talents and interests, allowing him to chart his own path in life. Different to some of the experiences I had as a child where some of my interests were overlooked or it felt like I had to be scholarly and even when I would get good grades, it would never be acknowledged or celebrated.

I have learned to prioritize my son's needs and provide him with the love and support he deserves. Parenthood has been a journey of growth, understanding, and unconditional love, and I am grateful for the opportunity to embark on this adventure with my son.

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