How my culture helped me become a Submissive

Clearly not every Indian woman becomes a submissive. In fact a dominant majority don't,  specially in my generation. Most don't practice or even respect  the customs and practices of our ancestors. For some reason though, I was influenced by my Mom, who is very traditional when it comes to these things.

Here are a few things that I have done most of my life as part of my culture, without even thinking,  that now take on a special significance for me as a Daasi or slave.

1. I have never called my husband by his name. He is a few years older to me and it was considered disrespectful to address your husband by his name. I never thought I would do this when I was married, but somehow just started practicing what my Mom did. My friends and even my husbands family made fun of me for following this ancient custom, but I secretly loved it and insisted on practicing it. The word I use to address him can't be described well in English. There is no equivalent English term for the word.  In English, one would say "You", but in our language, there are three different kinds of "You's". One "You" for folks who are younger or beneath you (Tu) , one for those who are your equal (Tum) and one for folks who are your superior(Aap). I always used the last one to address him. "Aap". And since I could never yell out his name or yell out something like "Do you want to...." in a crowd without everybody wondering who I was talking to, whenever I wanted to say something to him, I had to go find him, touch him and then say "Aap", so there was no confusion on whom I was addressing. Now I just call him "Mere Parameshwar", "My God" in private and continue using the word "Aap" in public.  BTW, my husband used to call me Tum, but now he has quietly transitioned to Tu.
2.  Two days a week, I fast for my God's health and long life. No food or drinks morning to night. Before marriage I used to do it once a week, as a prayer to the divine to bless me with a good husband. I think that prayer was answered in spades! When I break my fast, I insist that my God eats first. This drives all my friends and even the women in my husband's family crazy, but I insist on doing it. I only eat before him if he is traveling on work. It is so ingrained in me now, I just can't change it
3. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is find my God's feet and touch them with my hands and then bring those hands to my closed eyes. I only open my eyes to the world once I have done this
4. I always enjoy eating his leftover food, but never allow him to eat anything I have eaten. When I was young my grandmother told me that this would reduce my husband's life and even though I now know that is absurd, I kind of get a kick out of following it anyway.
5. I believe in reincarnation, and I always pray that I be born as his wife in every birth I take on this earth
6. When we were married, my God tied a gold chain around my neck with a phallic symbol on it. Most Indian women nowadays don't even wear it on a regular basis, since it sometimes looks odd with some dresses. I insist on wearing it all the time. I have never removed it after we have been married. I remember a few years ago, we went for a glamor photo shoot and the photographer suggested that I remove it for the photoshoot. I flatly refused. This chain will come off me only when I die. I don't remove it at airports either. 
7. Before I start something new or embark on something important, I always seek my God out and get his blessings by prostrating before him.
8. I take pride in cooking for my God. He loves my cooking. This sounds so old fashioned now, but when I see him relishing my cooking, it gives me great pleasure.
9. In all our married years, I have ever refused him sex when he wanted it. For this I have to thank my Mom. She told me that this was one of the most important duties of a wife and I somehow internalized this deeply. I will blog about our first time having sex soon. My culture also taught me to be submissive in bed, and that finally made me completely accept the Master/Slave lifestyle outside our bedroom.

There are many other things in my culture that I think helped me become a submissive more easily, and I will blog about them soon.

As my God and I contemplated our transition to a formal Master/Slave relationship, we read a lot of the contracts that other couples published in their blogs to see what was expected  and I used to giggle and tell him, "but I do most of this already!"