Thread by @AnaMyID

Is there an Indian dream?

India has changed immensely during last thirty years and now more or less the entire globe is becoming 'Westernized' (or, 'Americanized'). Hollywood, American Media and American Corporations are "changing" pretty much everything..

A common India Dream:

At 16, pass high school with good marks,

At 18-19, pass admission test to get admitted into an engineering/medical college.

At 25, get a "good" job in government or in a large corporation. Get married to a beautiful girl that your parents pick for you. 1/

At 30, have your first child.

Have a good job with good salary that grants you good food, a good flat and two servants to take care of household work and to help with kids. 2/

You go to office and come back home after ten hours and your job is over. Rest of the time, you simply relax, watch TV, talk to friends, play cards, do meditation, discuss politics or do social work. Wife and servants take care of everything in the house. 3/

You get your tea and biscuit on time, your proper five course dinner on time, your dress ironed and ready without having to ask for it. Private tutor helps your kids with homework.

At forty, you help your parents buy a new house or to renovate the one they already have. 4/

You teach your children to respect your parents. Your kids like spending time with their grandparents and you let them. You call your parents regularly and you make sure that they maintain good health and get whatever medical treatment that they need. 5/

Your son plays cricket and your daughter learns music. Both of them are obedient, polite, well-mannered and disciplined and you want both of them to study science... and, do 'similar' to what you did... only 'better'. 6/

You're proud of India's heritage. You're proud of Vedic Culture. You think Vedantas are the pinnacle of Human wisdom & you consider Gita among the best text ever written. You recite Gita everyday in the morning. You dream of having more time to read Vedanta when you get older. 7/

On weekend mornings, you take a walk in park with your childhood friend(s). On pretty much each weekend, either a friend's family come to visit your house or you go to visit theirs. 8/

You praise Americans for their brains and for their advanced science and technology.

At 45, you went to visit Europe with your family. You think at 50, you will visit America and see New York, Washington, California, Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. 9/

One of your childhood friend in the USA and you rave about him and you think he is a 'top scientist' there. You are proud of him and you always tell about him to your kids. Sometimes he calls you and whenever he does, you are absolutely delighted. 10/

You have read a lot about Abraham Lincoln, Ford, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Edison and you always talk about them to your kids. You think Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are brilliant men and you are sad that Trump is destroying America. 11/

What exactly is the American Dream? I don't really know what it means but, I can "visualize" it as follows... 1/ (thread)

Having a girlfriend when you are sixteen.

Doing drugs, alcohols, orgies and parties when you are eighteen.

Having a job, a car, a fancy accommodation and a live-in girlfriend when you are twenty five. 2/

Getting promoted, getting married, buying your first condo and planning for kids when you are thirty.

Having children, a dog, a four bedroom house with large yard and working as a director when you are forty. 3/

A 6 bed mansion, a boat, Porsche, 2 million investment, half million cash when you are fifty. You call your subordinates from the golf course & tell them what they should be doing, while you entertain yourself & your counterpart with Cigar & a round at a luxurious golf course. 4/

Many of your friends are investments bankers and financial advisers... many of whom come with beautiful, attractive, well dressed and slightly flirtatious female 'assistants' in their early thirties or late twenties. Your wife is convinced that it is a "part" of your job. 5/

Some of your other friends are directors & vice presidents in other companies & many of them, you have known since college. You spend lot of your time with friends explaining to them why you didn't buy Ferrari & decided to go with Porsche, because of how much better it drove. 6/

You don't have many friends who are below manager level and who earn less than 180K per year. You think they are 'responsible' for what they have got in their career and you have reached where you are, because of working 'hard' and because of being 'smarter'. 7/

You talk about your father often in a critical tone and go to length explaining what a lousy man he was, and, how he is fully responsible for being where he is today... in a 'low cost' 'senior' community. 8/

In reality, you feel "guilty" when you see people working quite hard and still making quite low and uncertain wages. You feel "guilty" seeing your father in a low cost senior community, when you have got yourself a mansion. 9/

Yet, you never admit to or account on... because, you are afraid doing so will undermine your achievements. Plus, you think everyone in America is "supposed" to talk in terms of 'hard work' and 'personal responsibility' because... pretty much, every one in the Media does so. 10/

It never occurs to you that you have made pretty much all your money just 'selling' stuff and earning 'commission' and not really 'producing' or 'creating' something. Again, you take that as the way it is... and, that is the way it is "supposed" to be. 11/

Divorcing your fifty one year old wife when you are fifty five year old. Retiring at sixty with five million dollar in stock investments, two million dollars in cash and other hard investment, a six bedroom, one acre mansion in USA, two condos in Bahamas or Hawaii or Florida. 12/

And, you live with a twenty five year old, blue-eyed, beautiful blond who dropped out of high school because either she wanted to be a singer or her mother was pressuring too much, or, she had no "freedom" or the high school, especially science was too 'tough'.. 13/

And you spend much of your time surfing bare-chested and looking young, active, adventurous and energetic. 14/

And, then, you are eighty year old, possibly have had one double-pass heart surgery, the blonde has left you for someone her age and you are in a nursing home... in reality, waiting for your death... but, on the surface, not admitting so. 15/

Nobody lives it, but many dream it.

That is why it is called... a dream.

Lately, the American Dream has threatened to become a nightmare.

For a few, it is a financial wet dream.

For most, American Dream' is a dream with a shifting landscape; one moment you have a nice home, a car, food... and the next, you are standing naked in a vacant lot, shivering and hungry.

American Dream is often interpreted as home ownership. Some also think of it as the capacity to make something out of nothing -- such as going from poverty to financial success, or growing a business from the ground up and making it thrive.

American Dream not a concept I really identify as American per se. I think just about all people of all nationalities hope to be at least somewhat financially secure and physically comfortable. Another angle is the desire to position your children for a 'better' life.

At one time the American dream was defined as "a chicken in every pot".

The chicken, however, had a different dream entirely...

Your daughter has become a social activist, an environmentalist partly as a "reaction" to seeing yourself as extremely selfish, narrow minded, greedy, manipulating person who really cared only for himself. 16/

https://twitter.com/AnaMyID/status/1081414603156815872

You don't understand this, because, you think, you gave your children a "good" life... better than your parents gave you. 17/

Your daughter has also decided not to marry, mainly because of seeing how you treated her mom. She rarely sees you and tries to avoid thinking of you. She thinks of traveling to Africa... 18/

Your son is a successful manager, is married and has two kids. You like to spend time with your grandchildren but, your son considers you a bad influence and thus, tries to keep it to the minimum. He himself visits you rarely... 19/

Your ex-wife is still bitter and in slight disbelief that you had left her after so many years of marriage and then, started living with 'bimbo'! 20/

The blond whom you had met when she was 25 and "needy" and who had left you when she had become 31 and "cunning" is now a semi drug-addict and partly alcoholic, she has separated from the man she had married after leaving you. 21/

You secretly think that she "robbed" you but, you never admit it thinking that it will make you look stupid and others who you thought, were secretly jealous when they saw you with that 25 year old blonde will laugh on you. 22/

You sometime, wonder: what did I do wrong? Because, according to you, you did everything right and you achieved so much for your kids and family. If they don't show gratitude, what can you do? Kids these days... 23/

In the short history of USA, there has always been a promise of a "better tomorrow"; better education for children, better opportunities, bigger houses, more money, more free time. Yet for the first time, the younger gen sees less opportunity for themselves than their parents had

Never before has the 'emptiness' of the American dream been better highlighted... The rich and the famous and privileged keep showing us just how miserable their lives are when their lives have no purpose beyond that of aspiring to get more and more and more (of whatever). 25/25