Indian parents – some would widen that concept to many Asian parents – are a unique breed. There are high expectations of academic excellence and conventional, safe career choices. The high achieving kids of other parents are constantly held up as examples – basically the Sharmaji ka Ladka phenomenon. Plus, praise is parsimoniously doled out. When Megha Rajgopalan won the Pulitzer Prize, this happened.
The Pulitzer Prize is one of the most coveted prizes in the world for journalism, literature and music. Megha Rajagopalan, an Indian origin journalist from BuzzFeed News is one of the recipients of the Pulitzer this year for her reportage of China’s concentration camps for Muslims. Her dad’s reaction to her stellar achievement was this: he seemed rather underwhelmed.
The Indian dad isn't effusive with his praise. Neither is he too sentimental about the past cuteness of his child.
That old expectation – being doctor means that one is both gainfully employed as well as has a respectable place in society.
This is a video that went viral recently. This young woman's parents unsuspectingly read out her acceptance letter into optometry school and are clearly delighted.
There is still that expectation that in order to be considered successful, one has to be in one of the more traditional professions.
This Indian dad was quite clear about how he would react to his own daughter Megha achieving something like this.
The expectations are high and hard work is nonnegotiable.
Megha’s experience resonated with a lot of people who may have had similarly prosaic reactions from their parent(s) about an achievement.
A lot of expats have this high achieving attitude because they feel the need to prove themselves in their adopted environments and expect their kids to do the same.
The upbringing some people have had, makes it difficult to praise, compliment and express joy.
It is possible to convey emotions such as happiness, pride, amazement, delight via the written word and a judicious use of punctuations. If one wants to, that is.
Would that be deserving of something more enthusiastic?
While Indian parents may not be very verbose in their praise for their kids, they will ensure that others in the family and even the larger community know about those achievements.
Securing a second rank is just as good beta, said no Indian parent ever.
Megha Rajagopalan's dad’s matter-of-fact response to her hugely significant achievement is only par for the course. However, this does raise the bar now for other desi kids.
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