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The Times We Live In
Anita Khemka
IndiaGALLERYCONVERSATION
I began photographing sixteen year old girls in New Delhi in November 2002. The testimonials written by these girls were a revelation to me on a personal and sociological level.

I’m thirty years old, almost twice the age of the girls I’m photographing. For me, their writings revealed an enormous generation gap, much more than what I felt with my mother’s generation. My teen years were idyllic, much calmer in contrast. I used to ride my bicycle, play table tennis and spend a lot of time reading. Cable TV didn’t exist. The highlight was the Sunday movie on national television, which kept my mother glued to the screen while I sneaked away to meet my boyfriend. Conversations about sex were taboo when I was a teen.

Indian society is largely understood in the context of patriarchal domination. A woman’s role in society was defined as a mothers, wife, sister and daughter. She was brought up to perpetuate these values unto the next generation of women. To a large extent, this still holds true in most parts of India, especially rural areas. However, the influx of cable television and foreign media is enormously influencing the way young teens perceive themselves and their external environment. Sixteen is such a formative year in a young woman’s life. Girls are becoming women much ahead of their time. Peer pressure is extraordinary. The self-image is constantly changing. For many, it is a very narcissistic age-the birth of self-awareness is always much more complex in the head. Beauty pageants in India today have found national sanction and glory.
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Mothers and Daughters
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