Few days back while discussing with a friend about parenting, our topic switched to “our times”. I have become enough old to remember the “old times”. I can discuss with others how “hamare zamane main…”
I consider myself a descent tech-savvy people. I like to stay with the times. But then its not about how tech-savvy life has become. Its more than that. The childhood I spent was different from what the children today spent just like the childhood I spent was different from what my parents had spent.
Over the years, we have made progress. Once considered luxury is now a norm but then it is just not only about the luxuries or the transport or education or gadgets or for that matter the style of living.
What separates one generation from another? The thoughts! The thinking!
Every generation builds on the values of the previous ones. Most of these values remains same but then many of them change with time evolving into more practical. A hundred years ago child marriage was the norm. A Hundred years later, I am still not married at 34.
So what makes every person thinks that his/her generation was the best. I guess its the way we were brought up with the values our parents try to teach us. We may bribe, be corrupt but we still know at the bottom of our heart that this is wrong.
With the world becoming smaller and more informed, the generation gaps are not restricted between parents and children. The way teenagers live their life is different from us who are now in their mid-thirties.
I find the present children have lost the simple pleasure of playing in the dirt. You need to smell the dirt to be dirty and that does not come on a 20 thousand play station or Reebok shoes. That comes from sitting in the dirt
While standing in a queue the other day, I witnessed a heated discussion between some adolescent boys about the different status and applications of “Facebook”. I laughed at them thinking about how stupid they were discussing something irrelevant like “Facebook”
But when i think about it, we had spent lots of time discussing Jackie Chan and Arnold movies. But it was the “in” trend at that time.
Every generation acts stupid before it matures itself. Maybe this generation will always do.
But then there is very disturbing trend that I think I have observed is the degradation of values. The “results” are more important than the “means” and to achieve “results” all “means” are acceptable.
The world always had good and bad people and I may only be looking at the darker side but in a cut-throat competition, parents and children alike go for the “results”
As I said, i may be reading a lot into things and need to be more optimistic. Every generation has its own share of good and bad. I can get stuck in “Hamare zamane main” or maybe adapt. Its just a matter of perspective and generation gap is the failure to understand the other’s perspective.
I could be wrong in really understanding the real generation gap but a the end of the day, its just putting yourself in someone else shoes and smile!
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