10 Reasons I Wish I Grew Up Literally Anywhere BUT India

Growing up in India comes with a lot of problems that sometimes make me wish I could grow up literally anywhere else. Here are some.

Spending a large part of my growing up years in India, I would be lying if I said I hadn’t had moments where I thought I’d be better off living somewhere else. India is a country with rich culture, deeply rooted traditions and generally welcoming people. I love where I come from, and I am proud of its people, but I am not shy about admitting that the country comes with its own list of flaws. Here are ten reasons why I wish grew up anywhere but India.

1. The weather can be unpredictable

Where I’m from, in the coastal city of Chennai, the weather remains hot, humid and sticky for most of the year. But come monsoon season and you are overcome with the uncertainty of whether a flood is going to sweep through the city or not. This is the same for many parts of the country where the climate oscillates between unbearably hot and then suddenly not. Unpredictable much?

2. The roads are a place of mayhem

Beeping horns and endless traffic. I used to hate going out to explore the city as a child. But can you blame me? The roads are filled with fancy cars, massive buses, wily bikes and manipulative auto rickshaws. You need the patience of a saint to navigate the traffic in India. And I definitely never had and continue not to have that kind of time or patience.

3. The lack of good public transport

Now you might be wondering why I hadn’t just used public transport to get around and explore the city. Because there weren’t any available to me. At least not any that were clean or well-maintained. The public buses are often filthy, and overcrowded. If I entered one as a child, I’d have probably been smothered. But the state of public transport has definitely improved in the recent years. If only I had the same growing up!

4. The people are most often conservative

Nothing wrong with being conservative. India is a country founded on its traditions and values, so expecting its citizens to observe them is not wrong. But more often than not people in India take conservative rules too seriously and impose too stringent rules on its still growing youth. The youth of India are often not given the opportunity to learn, explore and grow, limited to just what little is allowed of them.

5. Everyone has an opinion that they want to express no matter what

Freedom of speech is a good thing. Everyone has the right to express their opinions on things that matter to them. But pointing out someone’s flaws – like their weight, their acne or anything else that has the potential to breed insecurity- is not a necessity. Most Indians (there are exceptions of course) often have the habit of saying whatever comes to mind without a thought of who it might hurt, and this was one of the reasons I genuinely disliked growing up in India. I did not want to have it pointed out every time I gained some weight or got a pimple, and I doubt anyone wants such things pointed out!

6. Privacy is not an easy thing to have

People in India are well-meaning but nosy. They just have to know what’s going on with their neighbours, their distant relatives, and anyone else they might be acquainted with. So privacy is something that isn’t easy to come by living in India. As an introverted person who closely guarded their private life, I did not enjoy growing up in a country where the general consensus was that everyone wanted to know everything.

7. Safety is an issue

One cannot be truly sure that any country in the world is 100% safe. Chances are that no one country is completely safe from danger; this is quite impossible. But India with its culture of roadside Romeos and its lack of education on sexual health and consent is notorious for being unsafe; for both women and men. This isn’t to say that it’s completely uncultured or unsafe, just that the country has issues when it comes to safety.

8. The education system is less than ideal

Indians are generally pretty intelligent. We work hard in school and put getting good grades at the forefront of our education. But the education system fails us. By giving more importance to information dissemination rather than actually understanding of the information the system fails to make a lasting impact on its students and fail to teach us a lot of life lessons. Like mentioned earlier ignore topics such as sex education is completely ignored. I studied really hard in school but ask me a question from the very exam paper I scored a perfect score in, and I wouldn’t be able to tell you the answer now. At the end of it all, I come out feeling like I didn’t learn anything.

9. Many important issues are left unspoken and considered taboo

Whether it be mental health or sexuality, many important topics are left unspoken in India. It might be a product of how we are brought up, and what we consider things to be discussed in polite company, but a lot of serious topics are swept under the rug in the traditional Indian culture. As a person who is very open about my mental health, I’ve always struggled to have my problems and my story heard and understood in the country.

10. I just didn’t fit in!

This reason is quite personal to me. You could ask anyone else and they may disagree with the previous nine reasons and say they actually don’t have any faults to find with the country. But I saw these flaws, mainly because I always felt like an outsider in India- even though I grew up, spending two decades of my life in the country- and felt like I never fit in.