On Role Models

Ever been a role model? Or atleast been forced by your parents to aspire to a certain someone in the family (or the extended family)?

Asal Tamizh Penn takes us on a journey through her entire clan (well, almost), discussing role models and the absolute duds, in a beautiful write-up that one could really relate to:

Every family needs a role model, especially the children in the family. One needs someone who can inspire you to achieve academic excellence. And they need to be real people. It wasn’t enough that we had people like Nose Digging Sundaram, the boy who used to live two blocks away and was the first (after I was born, that is) person to go to IIT and become a National Talent Scholar from Bazlullah Road. While, that was envy inducing, and his mathematics teacher became the most sought after person, we liked to have our own heroes. The types who were closer to home and preferably also connected to the Bharadwaja Gothram in some manner.