Who can be considered an adult in India?

Being an adult in India is a tedious business and I will discuss three aspects of all the juggling this business requires.

Firstly, you must have hit puberty and if you are a girl child, this private metamorphosis is usually celebrated in a thoroughly public and embarrassing manner. For those not familiar with India and her cultural traditions, the public ceremony involves bright serial lights and invitations to near and far relatives, not unlike a birthday celebration. I am pretty certain that a cake is not involved in the celebration, but food and music maybe expected. Alas, being a girl you will never get to be an adult, because your father takes all your decisions for you, even the decision about who you ought to marry. After you get married, your husband becomes your protector and keen decision maker, regardless of whether you are more educated than the idiotic man.

Does a girl in India ever become an adult? The answer to that question leads us to the second point. A woman or a child can indeed become an adult, if they are able to manipulate the elders in the family into making decisions that are favourable to the woman or child in question. Some may say that this is rubbish and that my argument is as weak as a balding man's last strand of hair. But consider my argument; assuming that respect and independence are the marks of an adult, a woman or a child who can cry and sneak some influence on idiotic men are indeed adults.

Thirdly and lastly, anyone who earns enough money to show the metaphoric middle finger to existing power structures in India, can also be considered an adult. Back in the day, the caste system in India confined individuals to one particular trade and destined them to poverty or riches. Nowadays, western education has crept its way into urban middle class life. If you do well in school and college, then regardless of sex, sexual orientation, marital status, caste and religion you can be considered a full grown human.

So hit puberty, manipulate the elderly men and get an education if you want to be stamped a certified adult.