{"id":2560,"date":"2016-05-04T12:36:24","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T07:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2560"},"modified":"2016-05-04T12:36:24","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T07:06:24","slug":"survive-long-distance-relationship-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=2560","title":{"rendered":"How To Survive a Long-Distance Relationship with Your Parents"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

W<\/span><\/p><\/div>

hen I left home for the first time, my <\/span>parents<\/span><\/a> showered me with parting gifts and proudly told their friends and colleagues that the same useless child they\u2019d threatened with a belan one too many times, was now a functional adult ready for independent life. <\/span>\n\nExcept it\u2019s not really adulting when your mother gives you a <\/span>wake-up call<\/span><\/a> every day at 7.30 am. \u201cGoood morning, Shreya,\u201d chirps my mom, reminding me of <\/span>Vidya Balan\u2019s<\/span><\/a> annoying greeting from <\/span>Lage Raho Munnabhai.<\/span><\/i>\n\nMy <\/span>mother<\/span><\/a> puts up a great act of having some work or the other every morning \u2013 sometimes it is a reminder about a cousin\u2019s birthday or some irrelevant gossip about a neighbour \u2013 but I know she is basically checking if I\u2019m sticking to my resolve of waking up at 6 am and exercising. This is followed by a lecture on how early to bed and early rise is not just a phrase they teach in school, but one meant to be implemented. As the day goes on, she calls me to ask if I\u2019ve had lunch; dad, in another pretence at being fake-casual cool, pings to find out what am I up to after work. The final phone call comes late at night to interrogate why I was <\/span>\u201clast seen\u201d<\/span><\/a> on WhatsApp at an ungodly hour the previous day. To my parents, who begin counting sheep at 10 pm, sleeping at 3 am is the equivalent of losing their daughter to drugs. <\/span>\n\nNobody told me that moving out of the house would mean enduring a long-distance relationship with an extremely inquisitive set of folks. It\u2019s a lot like maintaining a diary of your life\u2026 and then reading it to someone like Rohit every day. Remember Rohit? That totally uncool boyfriend of Preity Zinta\u2019s in <\/span>Dil Chahta Hai<\/span><\/i><\/a> \u2013 the jealous sort who not only asks you details about your lunch date and the name of the restaurant you went to, but what the two of you ate and how many pieces of chicken were on each plate. <\/span>\n\nMy parents are a lot like Rohit. Totally uncool. <\/span>\n\nEvery person who has ever lived out of home, knows that the first thing to do is find a convincing answer to the <\/span>mother of all questions<\/span><\/a>: \u201cKhaana khaaya? Kya khaaya?\u201d The first two times I told my mom I skipped breakfast, it was greeted with the kind of silence that is reserved for someone who\u2019d horse-trade with the BJP in <\/span>Karnataka<\/span><\/a>. With time, I became a professional chef in the field of imaginary meals, making my lunch and dinner menu sound more like a fare at a <\/span>Punjabi<\/span><\/a> wedding. <\/span>\n\n\n

The first two times I told my mom I skipped breakfast, it was greeted with the kind of silence that is reserved for someone who\u2019d horse-trade with the BJP in Karnataka.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\nWhen I went off to do my <\/span>MBA<\/span><\/a> at 21, in a restriction-free, co-educational campus, my farewell at home was less of a cry fest and more of a moral science class on the type of boys on campus, my parents felt I should definitely not be hanging out with. Their insecurities increased with my newfound freedom, and \u201cWhy are you not picking up my call?\u201d and \u201cWhere are you going? We have the right to know\u201d became the background score to my life. \u00a0I told you… just like Rohit. <\/span>\n\nBut like all long-distance relationships, the beauty lies in the fact that despite the constant round of questioning, distance does make the heart grow fonder.<\/span>\n\nBefore moving out, I would be at the receiving end of futile orders like \u201cDrink green tea\u201d and savage remarks like \u201cYou are getting <\/span>fat<\/span><\/a>, drink honey and lemon,\u201d but now I\u2019m only complimented about how pretty I look in my pictures and how much weight I have lost. My <\/span>father<\/span><\/a>, with whom conversation has always been to the point, sends me photos of him running marathons, with exhortations to join him. Without the distance, we would still be sitting across the dining table in complete silence or debating my \u201cterrible career choices\u201d. <\/span>\n\nMany of my friends still stay with their parents, and work late into the night to avoid going home. They\u2019ve even muted family WhatsApp groups, but I love the jokes that fill my family group, the regular updates on the weather in their part of the world, and the pictures they send from holidays and dinner dates with captions such as \u201cYou would have enjoyed if you were here\u201d, \u201cWe miss you\u201d. My once barely affectionate awkward family has transformed into the <\/span>This Is Us<\/span><\/i><\/a> sort of fam, where we talk about our emotions, interests, and ambitions without feeling embarrassed. <\/span>\n\nAs I grow older and make peace with the isolation that comes with moving out, I count the days to my next <\/span>home-cooked sambar rice<\/span><\/a> and my tu-tu-main-main with dad about my messy room. But most importantly, I simply can\u2019t wait to give them a hug. <\/span>\n\nFor now, I\u2019ll make do with the wonders of technology and loads of hug emojis. My mother will naturally use it to investigate if I ate <\/span>Maggi<\/span><\/a> for dinner again. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nobody told me that moving out of the house would mean enduring a long-distance relationship with my extremely inquisitive parents. Mom calls me every day at 7.30 am to gossip about the neighbours. Dad, in a pretence at being fake-casual cool, pings to find out what am I up to after work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":243,"featured_media":2561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[439],"tags":[4293,2256,4344,1580,4505,4804,5211,1726,5212,5213,4228],"class_list":["post-2560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-modern-family","tag-adulting","tag-bjp","tag-college","tag-dil-chahta-hai","tag-karnataka","tag-living-alone","tag-long-distance","tag-parents","tag-preity-zinta","tag-rohit","tag-students"],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Survive a Long-Distance Relationship with Your Parents<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nobody told me that moving out of the house would mean enduring a long-distance relationship with my extremely inquisitive parents. Mom calls me every day at 7.30 am to gossip about the neighbours. 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Dad, in a pretence at being fake-casual cool, pings to find out what am I up to after work.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2560\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-04T07:06:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1526456994.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shreya Ramakrishnan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"How To Survive a Long-Distance Relationship with Your Parents\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Nobody told me that moving out of the house would mean enduring a long-distance relationship with my extremely inquisitive parents. 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