Concept of Privacy in Desi homes

Image by TIN

Personal space or privacy is something that mostly doesn’t exist in Desi (Indian, Pakistani) households. Yesterday I was reading a post on Reddit that was an Indian teenager’s rant about her nosy family. Believe me sis, I feel you.

First thing is that we sleep in our parents’ room till we turn 10 or 12. So, even they don’t have any privacy at all. I always wonder how did they manage to provide us with regular supply of younger siblings when I was there all along. After the younger siblings take our place on their bed, they move us to granny’s bed till our next sibling is old enough to accompany us in the haunted lands of a lonely bedroom. A bedroom that doesn’t shake with the snores of our dad or granny.

Now even after getting a whole room to ourselves, we are not allowed to lock it from inside. Anyone can and should be able to barge in as they please. Sleepovers are not allowed (until we are married to a stranger they choose for us, then they lock us inside with them happily!)

If we decide to write a diary then it is our family’s first duty to keep reading that secretly, because how else would they know that their child is getting all those nasty hormones and becoming an adult. I remember when I was 14, I started seeing boys differently and unfortunately wrote it in my diary too.