I stumbled across this entry from an lj friend's friends page. You sounded a lot like I feel whenever I visit my relations in India. Ergo this comment.

I have a lot of great-aunts etc. in Delhi and yes, this has happened to me.

Oh, yes. I'm a girl. Well, fuck you, I am not a subservient kiss-your-feet-and-worship-your-fucking-Y-chromosome little girl. I open my mouth and offer my opinion, and they laugh, because they've never seen it happen before

If they're anything like my people, they laugh because they don't know what else to do, or because they're scared. After a while they stop laughing and start being really scared.

Good luck, and what with the million coincidences, hope you don't mind that I added you.