First-time owner, so answering the actual question rather than the breed war.
Get a desi. Not because Persians are bad cats — I have one and I love her — but because of what a first cat is for. Your first cat is where you learn what normal is: what normal eating looks like, what normal litter box output looks like, when to worry and when not to. Learning that on an animal that is also fighting its own anatomy is very hard, because with a Persian half the "is this normal?" questions have the answer "no, but it is normal for the breed", and you cannot tell the difference yet.
On the grooming, since you asked whether it is more work than people say — yes. Considerably.
I was told "brush her a few times a week". The reality in Karachi humidity is a metal comb, right down to the skin, every single day, and about fifteen minutes. Miss four days and you have mats behind the ears and in the armpits. Mats do not brush out, they have to be cut out, and cutting a mat off a squirming cat is how you cut the cat — the skin comes up into the mat and you cannot see it.
I have cut my cat. Once. She needed three stitches and I felt sick for a week. Nobody warns you about that.
Then the parts nobody mentions at all:
The eyes. Daily wipe, because the tear ducts on a flat face do not drain properly and the wet fur under the eyes goes brown and then goes fungal.
The bottom. A long-coated cat with any digestive upset at all gets faeces stuck in the coat. You will be washing your cat's back end. This is a genuine, regular part of Persian ownership and it is in no advertisement.
The heat. She is visibly miserable from May to September and there is nothing to be done except keep her somewhere cool.
The cost, honestly: the cat was 40,000. Two years in, I have spent roughly 60,000 more on eye infections, one fungal skin course, and a dental. My mother's desi, adopted off the street, has cost 4,000 for a spay and 1,200 a year on vaccinations.
I would still have got her. But I would not tell a first-time owner to.
