Topic of your choice - Personal Statement Example

As a first generation Indian American, I was born stuck between two conflicting cultures. The traditional culture of my parents homeland and the culture and way of life of America, the country and society that I I feel I am strongly a part of. This war of cultures often left me bewildered, because my mother forced me to be a traditional Indian child when I was anything but that. I guess that is why I was somewhat rebellious as a child. As a child my mom would hand me a bowl of white Basmati rice mixed with brown lentil soup and a hint of ghee (butter).

I know that she did her best to make the freshly cooked, steaming bowl of rice look appealing to a child of my age. I protested each time she called me to a meal where I sat, morosely looking at the bowl of rice. Each time that she found herself on the verge of anger, she would set the ultimatum to finish my food by setting a fifteen minute timer next to me. Fearing her wrath, I would pick up my spoon and swallow a few bites of the offensive dish. Since so much time had already passed, the rice was now cold and soggy, definitely not delicious at all.

Sometimes feigning vomiting would make my mother feel guilty and force her to allow me to eat something of my choice. Mealtimes like these often resulted in a battle of wills between my mother and me. I hated Indian food with a passion; however, overtime, I developed a liking for the Basmati rice dish and consider the dish to be one of my favorites these days. My mother helped me finally developed a taste for the Indian delicacy. The time even came when my mom and I finally reached a food compromise.

Agreeing that I would eat the Indian food that she cooked, provided that she asked me what I wanted her to cook for me first. In the end, that was actually an agreement that worked well for us. Not only did we bond because we learned to respect each others choices in life, but I also ended up learning how to appreciate Indian delicacies as well. The most important memory from my childhood stems from the times when I would watch English television. I remember my sister and I would spend hours glued to Nickelodeon.

Imagine our dismay when we turned on the TV one day to discover that our mother, in an effort to curb the Westernization of our way of life, chose to cancel our American cable subscription and add Indian channels. My sister and I were becoming strangers in our own land. When we complained, our mother explained that she wanted us to be able to understand and speak Hindi, in addition to the Guajarati that we grew up learning, so that we could communicate with our relatives when we went home to India for vacations.

Knowing what would be expected of us during these visits was very important to my mother and the only way she could make sure we learned about it was by exposing us to the long distance culture was through cable television. Needless to say. her idea worked since I am now fluent in 3 languages and do not feel too much like a stranger when we visit our relatives in India. I am quite pleased and happy with myself because I can understand Hindi completely and need not fear any language barriers during those family vacations.

Thanks to my mothers insistence that I keep a part of my Indian culture and traditions with me even as I grew up as an American child, I have become the person that I am today; I am now a person of two cultures. These blended cultures have helped me become a unique and special person in this world. Everything that she insisted on doing for me in the past have helped make me the well rounded and culturally conscious person I am today.