“Automatic Upgrade” is written by Maggie Robb in 2011. In the short story, the protagonist and narrator, Ramesh is a 26-year-old Indian young man who is traveling to Surrey to meet his sister, her husband and their children with his grandma on a plane. Ramesh tells his grandmother on the plane that he is planning on quitting his career in medicine as a doctor and instead go into the mobile phone business. His grandmother does not take the news very well and is not very understanding at all. After a short nap, Ramesh wakes up to see his grandmother looking very lifeless. The aircrew handle the situation as professionally as possible without a mess. The two of them get upgraded to first class so that Ramesh …show more content…
“Automatic Upgrade” is an Indian 26-year-old single young man. His name is a very common Hindu Indian name which gives the impression that their family are Hindus and Indians. Another example showing that Ramesh and his grandmother are Indians is when she says, ““I want to assimilate before we get there'' she said, tucking the folds of her sari around her knees.'' (page 8, line 19) A sari is a piece of clothing that Indian women use. Ramesh has been studying medicine for five years, although he does not seem to enjoy it. He has his mind set on the mobile phone business. As Ramesh is the narrator, we only know what he says, sees or hears, as the story is coming from his perspective. Ramesh loves and respects his family a lot as we see Ramesh cares what his family thinks of him and that is why he finds it so hard to confront his family about his decisions on changing his …show more content…
A little over a decade ago it was very normal for parents in many countries to decide what their children should be when they grow and even who they should marry. In Some countries this is still normal. Today, children are taught several different subjects from making clothes, cooking, building, coding, writing, solving maths equations and acting, just to name a few. Children are taught such a large variety of things so that they can find what they truly want to do, and not limit the options, as the options are truly endless, and the children should know that. If children weren’t taught so many different things, they would only know what their parents do and say, and therefor would they naturally follow their parents path whether that’s best for them or not. In Denmark for example, going to High school is not forced, but a choice. You choose whether or not you want and education whereas in certain countries, it is compulsory. As the years go by, I believe young women and men will become more free to choose how they want to lead their lives. In Ramesh’s case, he knows what he truly wants to do but he has so much pressure from his family and especially his grandmother. They are telling him what is right and wrong, and what he should do, even though he knows that is not what he wants to do. I would say that because of Ramesh’s family, he is not free. Although Ramesh did not want his grandmother to