As the first grandchild I was absolutely adored by my grandparents and uncles and aunts. And it did not matter that I was a girl rather than a boy. Stories of boys being valued over girls is nothing new in South Asia. Boys are regarded as breadwinners for elderly parents, whereas girls are seen as burdens that have to be married off with dowries. I have engaged in enough women’s rights activism to know that the belief ‘sons are better than daughters’ is a huge problem in some parts of the world, especially in India.
