2ShadesOfBrown - On My Head

The podcast hosts, Josie and Sanjana, discuss their experiences growing up in immigrant households. They highlight the differences in their family dynamics and the various experiences they had as first-generation Americans. They focus on Indian mothers and the unique challenges they face. They share a humorous anecdote about a common joke among brown kids. They interview Anikyella, who shares a memory of her mom embarrassing her in public and the academic pressure she feels. They emphasize that while the pressure can have negative effects, it can also motivate individuals to excel. They conclude by acknowledging that their moms always want the best for them. Hi, I'm Josie. And I'm Sanjana. And welcome to our podcast, Two Shades of Blue, where we will be talking about our experiences as children in immigrant households. Here, we'll talk about shared experiences, and although most of our experiences are the same, they're also quite different. For example, I am a first-generation American on both sides of my family, and I'm also the oldest daughter and cousin. Whereas, I'm a first-generation American only on my dad's side, and second-generation on my mom's side. I'm the eldest daughter and one of the first cousins, oldest cousins, on both sides. Yeah. So, the point of our podcast is to help people understand that it seems like we're very similar in experiences, but everybody's family dynamics and experiences are all different. Yeah. And, for example, Indian mothers, there are a lot of similarities, and a lot of things that a lot of Indian mothers do that we can all just laugh and joke about, but they're also quite different. For example, my mom is American, and so I can relate to her a lot, I can understand her. You know, she's my friend. Yeah. And, on the other hand, my mom is from a small village in India, and she is rather conservative, but at times, she can be my friend, and at times, she doesn't necessarily understand the way I think and some of the things I do. So, that brings us to the topic of our episode. It's about Indian mothers, and the episode is called, I'm Okay. Because we've all had that experience where, okay, I'm the kid in front of the mom, we go to the mom with a plate, or anything even, and I'm like, hey, where do I put this? And they say, I don't know, just put it on my head, as stereotypical sarcasm. It's funny, but it's just a shared joke that a lot of brown kids have. And so, in this podcast, every episode, we're going to do a new interview, and the purpose of these interviews is to show perspective, because although me and Sanjana, you know, I'm from Delhi, I'm from Punjab, my mom's American, whereas Sanjana is from South India, we have different experiences. So, now we are going to cut to the interview. Okay, we're here with... Anikyella. And our first question is, what is the first memory you recall of your parents embarrassing you, specifically your mom? All right, so I remember going to the mall with my mom, and we randomly bumped into my family friend's mom, and she was with her kid in the JC Penny shopping line, and I remember just randomly, I was just overhearing what they were talking about, and they were just talking about how I'm very bad academically, and my mom was just complimenting her kid a lot, like how he's hella smart, and all of that, and that made me very sad inside. I felt like really just running away from my family, and I felt really sad. I just wanted to not exist anymore, and I felt very disappointed in myself because my mom didn't see me the way I thought she would. So, then I went all the way, I ran all the way across JC Penny, and then I went, like, I started crying right next to a mannequin, and then I came back, and no one saw me. But it was very embarrassing because I cried in public. Okay, how do you feel like your mom's academic... How does your mom's academic pressure make you feel? Well, I feel like my mom's pressure has got me to become a very good person, because at first, I didn't really care about my studies, and after my mom started comparing me with other people, I kind of realized, like, I should kind of push myself a little more so then I can be a better person to my mom's eyes. So, after I've done that, I now have a 5.0 GPA. For sure. And I am a very smart kid, doing a lot of extracurriculars, and as committed to UC Santa Barbara. You're a junior. In his brain, he's committed. Yeah, yeah. All right, thank you for the interview. And I think what we can really take away from this interview is that it's a lot of fun. What we can really take away from that is that our parents, specifically, this episode is about our moms, they put a lot of pressure on us academically, and overall, it's kind of just like an experience. Like, we know they want the best for us, and we really just try to take away the positive things from it, and look at Puneet, he's now making the joke out of his past experiences, and it seemed like he turned out just fine. Ah, it's a little controversial, but okay. Yeah, but we all like to joke about it now, you know. It's just kind of become part of our lives. So, yeah, it can affect us negatively and positively. I think when we were little, we may have taken it a bit more to heart. Like, Puneet really nicely explained in his story. And although not all of us may go cry in the corners, we still do take it to heart, but we learn to grow from it. And I think that's what we can say, that our moms, no matter what, love us the most, and always will help us. Yeah, and they always want the best for us. Yep. Yeah. With that, we conclude this episode of Touche at the Brown, and we'll see you next time with a new topic, a new interview, and a new perspective. Yeah, thank you so much for listening. Have a great day. Thank you.