In Indian households, family members often dismiss struggles by pointing to material comforts: you have a house, a car, good school. This invalidation breeds self-doubt and guilt. You don't need permission to feel sad. Your pain is valid.
Chapters
आपके पास तो सब है, घर है, गाड़ी है, समझते बड़ा टीवी है। कबेटा तो अच्छा स्कूल में भी जाता है। कहीं सिकारा डूब गया भी, तो आपको क्या फर्क पड़ेगा? सब आगे निकले, और मैं ये कामवाली भाई के साथ बैठके बिजनेस कर। ये कामवाली भाई कामवाली भाई क्या करते रहते हो? अरे अपना हक्का कमा रह सब पीछे तो ऐसे मुफ्त में मिलता है ना, उसका कीमत पता नहीं रहता है। जब अपने खुद के घर में ही पता है। Honestly, this happens so much in Indian households.
You try to tell your family that you are struggling, that you are tired, or that something they said genuinely hurt you. And instead of actually listening, you hear, तुम्हारे पास तो सब कुछ है। तुम्हें किस बात की प्रॉब्लम है? People would kill for the life you have. उनके पास तो ये भी नहीं है, फिर भी वो खुश हैं। Because when you repeatedly hear things like this, whenever you try to talk about what you are going through, you slowly start thinking, maybe I'm just ungrateful, maybe I'm overreacting, why am I even sad? And eventually you stop sharing. You get irritated easily, you start feeling guilty for being sad. You even start asking for permission to just be yourself, and slowly it becomes your normal. You stop trusting your own emotions because you have been taught that there's always someone who has it worse. But you don't need anyone's permission to be sad. Your pain doesn't become less real just because someone else is suffering more. And if you have been trying to explain what you are going through but nobody around you seems to understand, and keeping all of it inside is starting to eat you alive, Comment grow and I will send you something that might help you out.