When you told me not to do something a certain way
I was confused, I had no reference to comprehend anyway
What your motivation or reasoning happened to be
That you were being unreasonable is all I could see
Other parents did not curb the freedom of their daughters the way you wanted to
I neither understood where you were coming from nor did I care to
Listen to you in those tumultuous adolescent years
I did not know I was manifesting at that time your worst fears
You must have tried to explain to me your traditions
Based on which you were making these decisions
But it was a different world in which I had grown
I had never lived in the country from which you had flown..
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My daughter, it was an uphill battle for me
To raise you in a completely different country
With cultural norms so different from my own
In bringing you up, I was treading through waters unknown
What you perceived as lack of freedom was for me
A way to inculcate in you the traditions of my country
I knew (having experienced the period of adolescence)
That you were in the expected phase of defiance
Where any rule from your parents would feel too restrictive
But complete freedom to you I could obviously not give
To the parent-teen friction was this added layer
Of cultural differences in behavior, dress and hair
Between my parent culture and my adopted one
A middle path between the two was the one
I expected you to follow eventually
Which you did- with some consternation evidently
I made a mistake when I assumed you would understand
Where I was coming from, the deep-rooted practices of my homeland
I don’t know how you feel but here’s what I have to say
Passion...unbridled 