In 2018, we don’t introduce ourselves on the internet. Instead, we ration our emotions, perfect our personalities, and assemble our opinions so we can sell ourselves as a faultless commodity. We create a brand of ourselves and then spend all our energy in selling the best versions of ourselves to people on the internet.

In a country that thrives on a population which spends most of their waking hours trying to get by, “middle class” is a necessary armour, a shared language, a value system, and more importantly, a way of life. It makes you realise the difference between luxury and necessity, and builds character.

As an Indian daughter, I was made to believe that fathers could be patriarchs, but they were not the kind we should be revolting against. Unlike movies, which gloss over the regressive mindsets of desi dads, the cruelty of real life doesn’t afford the luxury of skimming through. It’s something us daughters have to wrestle with every second of the day.