This story is based on my life experience and opinion. I am sure different people will have different view about this article. I just want to reach out to the people who might be facing the same thing and let them know that they are not alone.

Gender and LGBT- I was born in a South Asian country where the social norms are bit restricted. We are told that society is restricted to only male and female gender and there is a significant negligence for the rest. Now, about me I am a female, i was always an outcast with a unique fashion and music taste (As the taste did not match with most of the country’s young generations.) with a athletic build (I love to exercise and play). My thinking were always out of the box and I always wanted to let people know that gender does not matter and everyone should have equal rights. I have seen majority of people from anonymous gender section of the society living a poor life due to lack of social acceptance, restricted education and job opportunities. In recent years, during my stay in other part of the world. I was amazed to see the acceptance of anonymous gender, gay, lesbian and transgender, androgynous people. I felt bad for the countries where people are still confused with their sexuality, lesbians or gays who never had a chance of coming out due to social abandonment.
My Opinion on Gender — I want to share what I have felt living in a multi cultural environment.

Sexual Orientation — Where I was born girls are portrayed to have feminine character and features. People often labelled a girl with less femininity as TOM BOY. I could care less about those conceptions and have my own style yet sometimes it gets on your nerve when people constantly keep labeling you as a TOM BOY. I believe there is there is no category to define my character and I guess some of us feel like that too. But when I have experienced other culture I saw people could care less about styles and dresses they have individuality. I loved that. Now I am not saying it is perfect as everything has a good and bad side.
I felt cat calling are common in both eastern and western part of the world. For all the girls out there, whoever have experienced cat calling, please hold your head high and ignore the cat calls if it is too much please speak out in a polite yet rude (you know what i mean) way. Do not let it affect you in anyway. Think it as survival for the fittest or some sort of challenge. Of course, keeping yourself at a safe distance :). Do not let it destroy your image about the country and it’s experiences.

Work, Diversity — I had the opportunity to work both in my country as well as in other country as software developer. Let me tell you the quality of work is still the same and unfortunately the male to female ratio in the workforce is still the same. It is unfortunate that still majority of girls are not into coding. I could still see that girls are struggling both in western and eastern part of the world. Honestly, the way software developer jobs are portrayed is very comical, people have misconception that they need to be a genius to be in this field. It is certainly not. I must tell you that over the years of coding in office I have developed a callous and lethargic behavior towards coding. Do not get me wrong i love to code but more as a personal project rather than in a restricted frame. I wonder how a company expect you to grow when you are supposed to do in a routine fashion. I guess I might be the only one feeling this way. This lead me to have a love hate relationship with general corporate structure. I must tell the western part of the world have literally invested time and effort to help young adult and girls to code, unfortunately my country as one of the biggest IT hub (by now you might have guess the country’s name :)) has still a long way to go. I might be wrong but i feel like south Asian countries (not all) are a bit rigid and grasps change slowly. But I am still proud of my country’s progress. No doubt our country have brilliant, innovative people but unfortunately I have never seen these people (I can obviously miss out some great people doing generous things) taking their valuable time out to teach young adults about technologies and motivate them. Now you might have a think that hey any one can learn from free lessons and tutorials in YouTube and from anywhere in the internet. I totally agree with you but somehow I feel that internet is like a water hose throwing a huge chunk of information without any logical order. So what I am trying to say is if a person take initiative and help guide young minds in a particular path I am sure they will find it easy and comprehensible. It is unfortunate that lack of clear information and guidance can really stop a person’s growth. I have experienced this myself as new technology emerges there will be tutorials everywhere and everyone gets hyped up and a few days later they loose interest. I believe it is mainly due to either the technology itself is very new and unstable or lack of good materials. It is really funny when we pay so much amount of money just to learn basics of technology.
Challenge and Self-Growth- I love challenges, that being said I was not always like that. I have tried my self bound to routine stuffs but then I have realized that I am dying from inside. I feel that IT people (not all) are less emotional. I see myself as a coder as well as outgoing person. I am now searching for a new challenge and people often ask me oh my!!! you have not got what you are looking for. That one statement did gave me nightmare and questions about my existence. Soon I have realized that no matter what you do there will always a questions no matter where you are from. I guess people stop questioning when a person rise to fame or gain a certain social reputation. I have accepted myself and decided to always work hard to get myself to a position where I want myself to be. I believe I am almost at my nirvana stage :p
Note — Hope I did not bore ya !!! Ohh!!! and much to anyone’s surprise people are same anywhere, we all have same sense of failure, success, fame , shame, fear. We are all in one , it is just a small matter of initiative makes the difference. Trust me I have come across people from various cultures, as much as I love talking with them and appreciate their culture. I feel everyone is looking for freedom and internal peace. There are some people who want to settle to east far away from fast pace society of west, there are people from east who want to settle to west for better life and support.
I guess I am the weird one having no such preference of settling anywhere. In my case I feel valued if I am doing something really creative and wonderful for the people who are living a less privileged life. Now this path will be difficult but it is worth trying !!!! Rich and Poor are everywhere in all parts of the world. It is just a matter of perspective. I appreciate all cultures and welcome your thoughts on this article. I apologize in case anyone is hurt due to this article.
Stay Creative and Positive. I know it is tough but let it be a challenge and we can work towards it in an inch day by day. Do not let anything get the best of you.
Until next time …………………