When it rains on Saturday, it rains for the entire week

Or at least, that's what my aunt believes. It poured on Saturday and Sunday, and it looks like it will rain today as well.

The problem with rain however, is that there is not an efficient sewer system in place in Delhi. So when it rains, the streets get filled with water, making transportation a nightmare. On Saturday, we went to watch Inception (it was a great movie; for everyone who hasn't watched it, your life is incomplete). When we started, it was only drizzling. By the time we got into the city, it was pouring. Every time a metro station loomed overhead, there was a traffic jam. Why? Because everyone riding a bicycle or a motorcycle would haphazardly park their bikes underneath the station, hoping that the rain would stop within the next 15 minutes. It didn't. It rained continuously for almost 4 hours. The continuous rain caused the roads to become super muddy (a lot of the roads aren't paved in India) and dirty. I like rain, but not like this.

We reached the mall which housed the movie theater without any major incident. In India, before you can enter any mall, you have to go through a metal detector, and then you are patted down by an attendant (for women, it's done in an enclosed space the size of a large closet). I was patiently waiting for the attendant to finish frisking the woman in front of me. As soon as she motioned for the next person to come in, this girl in her early 20s pushed past me (literally, pushed past me) and entered. That's one of the biggest problems (I think) in India: no one is willing to wait. Everyone's time is ultra-important, at least, more important than the next guy's, so they have to be first. It leads to traffic jams and problems like this, and more than that, it gives an impression of rudeness. Is it really too hard to wait an extra 30 seconds? Is it? And if it is, then you should have planned for that, giving yourself extra time in case something like this happened.

Thankfully, we reached the movie in time. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie (my Facebook status since then has been a quote from the movie). In the theater, however, I noticed that there were many couples. Now, most Indian parents are anti-relationship, especially during the high school/college years. All the couples seemed to be in that age group. Parents could be becoming more liberal. I don't think so though. I think the Indian teens are trying to emulate the culture of the West. Is that a good thing? Most definitely not. I think that the Indian teens see the West through such distorted glasses, through movies like Mean Girls and MTV shows (like Jersey Shore), which don't depict reality AT ALL. Note to all Indian teens: No, even though I'm a teenager, I do not have a night life. I do not go clubbing. I do not drink or do drugs. I don't talk like Snookie from Jersey Shore. I haven't had 30 relationships in high school. I don't party all the time. In fact, in the last year, I can count the number of parties I've been to on my hands, maybe even one hand. Now that could be because of my Indian heritage and the focus on education, but I'm pretty sure that most teens in the US would say that these last few statements are true. These statements may seem outrageous, but I have had Indian girls (teens) ask me if I have a night life in the US. I live in a place where the mall closes at 9:30...on weekends.


So, I have two requests. One, to American producers: Please try and make more realistic shows. You're ruining the reputation of all the Indians who go abroad and live in a foreign country. Not to mention that you're leading minors to drink, smoke and do drugs. Second, to Indian teens: Don't believe everything you see or hear.