Here's my 'inspiring' letter to my daughter, then
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Hey Aanya,
How you doing. Some chick in a red saree with big gold dots just wrote an inspiring letter to her daughter so I'm writing one too.
Here's some points to keep in mind, when you grow up.
1. Your primary responsibility isn't your family. This old BS story of balancing career, husband, children, in-laws, pet cockatoo... is a patriarchal, self-perpetuating myth designed to keep women in their primary place, as much as possible - home. Ever come across a man writing these long and silly mails to their son about how supportive his wife and in-laws were? You've heard of 'multitasking supermom', ever heard of 'multitasking superdad'? It's a con job.
The red saree chick's letter starts 'As a parent with a full time job, one must not let work affect the way you relate to your family.'
W. T. F.
Look baby, there's a strong chance you're going to be stressed out like batshit when you get back home from work. My advice is screw the family (if you're married, if not, cool), lock up the in-laws and outlaws, drink some nice light wine, light up a nice big joint, and get back to work on your laptop - and kill it. And yeah, go for a run every morning and listen to a lot of the Stones, which you already do I think, he he.
2. Your primary responsibility is pursuing an activity/ies that makes you happy, and sharing that happiness with other people, esp the lesser privileged.
It means -
A. Being yourself, not what some aunties and uncles want you to be,
B. Walking your own path, following your own heart no matter what.
C. Define what success means for yourself, and if you can't do that, no worries, just be happy.
D. Screwing up and going back to A as often as you like.
E. Reject all of the above and write your own story - if you need to. I think it's a pretty good template though.
Got that? Now go back to Dubsmash.
See you around,
Baba.