This weekend, I spent a couple of days in a suburb of Chennai visiting my family, and in between family meals and everyday errands, I got the chance to sit down with my cousin Vaishnavi. We talked about the stuff that makes up a real day: idli and dosa mornings, school buses and canteens, switching between English and Tamil, after-school activities, and the kinds of questions teens are asking as the world gets more online. Here’s a snapshot of her world, in her own words.
“Typically [my] breakfast and dinner are usually idli or dosa, that kind of food.” For lunch, she said she normally eats “rice with different vegetables and different curries.” She also mentioned a 4:00 p.m. snack... “I just mostly eat like chips. Actually, the Indian Magic Masala from Lays are my favorite!”
“I live in an apartment on the third floor.” She also described her apartment community as close-knit, especially around holidays, where “for any event like Diwali or like New Year’s everyone always gets together.”
