What it’s like being an Indian doing an Arts subject at uni

The basic formula for success in South-Asian families runs a very predictable line of events.

Your family expect you to head over to your destined university for Medicine or Engineering, to aim for Oxbridge because you’ve slaved away most of high school in your bedroom obsessing over your Classics paper when you should’ve just been a bit more chill and got pissed in a parking lot with some Wkd .

Now, once you have that Oxbridge rejection (in most cases) solidified, it gives you the perfect pity story to end up with having to “make do” at Imperial or UCL, (Because all Asians are aware, that London is where its at) and you’re on your way to that dream career.

However, after finishing school I was so confused about whether I really wanted to analyse what was coming out of people’s bums for a living (medicine in a nutshell),so I decided to apply for Political Science. Simply because it was the one class I sort of enjoyed at school. I thought it would be fun. But being a Political Science student in an Indian community has several socially painful aspects.

Firstly your parents , like mine , were probably trying to fake being mildly encouraging when your Doctor dad is actually hyperventilating about where you’re headed in life. And your mum is already phoning up folks back in the motherland to arrange a summer internship for you in a random NGO in Delhi to at least give you some “global” exposure.

Most questions which got thrown my way were “but, like , will you be ever be employed?” all the way down to a violent outburst of “you should’ve just tried the UKCAT that summer”. Not to forget at every Indian gathering you have to awkwardly laugh and explain your degree to overly judgmental old ladies who will coat their disapproval with phrases like ,”wow, that must be different” and “so, going to be our first brown Prime Minister eh?” This cycle repeats itself, for every summer that you have to endure it before you can thankfully flee your hometown back to campus in fall.

That being said, I’ll always pick this tension of being that ‘non-medic’ south Asian student over being in a hospital when I hate blood, and old people, and needles , and A level biology. At least at some point I may have a selfie with Boris Johnson, surely that beats being a GP?