The case of a modern youth:
This will be in the form of a story, which, I read and was impressed by it. So I decided to retain the form of narration itself for sustaining reader’s interest.
We will give the narrator of this story a name. Lets say, Ram (since it will suit the story)…. The story runs thus…
“Ram….! Wake up! Its already 5.30 and today is ‘akshya thithi.'. Appa wants you to start “Vishnu sahasranamam” recital today. ”. I was really in a good sleep that day that I din’t want to wake up at all. Seeing my condition, my mother went for an other way itself.
She started pulling my hands to wake me up. She said, ”You won’t change. Let me call your father….”. In those days, I really had a fear as well as a fair amount of respect for our father. Our family had totally 6 people. It was a pretty long family when compared to the present generation (the case of which is described later). I have 4 brothers and one sister.
Ok… Lets get back to the story…
When I starting shifting my bed sheets aside, I could hear the recital, “‘Kausalya Supraja Rama' . . . I woke up to the mellifluous voice from the legend ‘MS.'” My mother interspersed her commands as she proceeded with her sloka along with MS.
So I ran on through the beautiful paddy fields. I saw the beautiful red colour in the sky, the sun slowly starting to rise as I proceeded amazing at the natural beauty of the sky.
I was suddenly drawn to the melody from the paddy field. Looking around, what I saw was an enactment of the beautiful verses from William Wordsworth:
Behold her single in the field,
Yon solitary island lass,
Reaping and singing by herself,
Stop here or gently pass.
I thought of these beautiful lines as I passed through. The swirling river waters meandering through the bamboo grove were enchanting. I sat on the parapet wall on the river bank watching at the morning scenes… An elderly man, possibly in his late 50’s was taking bath and offering prayers to Sun God… On the other side, there was a Banyan tree where women were offering prayers… On the third direction, there was an elephant taking bath, possibly the temple elephant, with the mahout gently patting on it.
As I reached back, my mother was on the doorsteps with her stern looks. “Why are you late? When are you going to correct yourself? Irresponsible,” she shouted. I quietly stood with folded hands before my father. “Did you finish your sandhya vandam? Then “sit down facing the east,” he said and started the mantra. The class thus started.
It was the music class which my father conducted. My sister, who was just 10 years old was readying for her morning music class in the next room. I lent my ears to the music master's “sa, pa, sa” to adjust his sruti.
“Today, we will start a new raga” said the master and thus proceeded sa, re, ga, pa, da, sa, sa, da, pa, ga, re, sa. “What raga” queried the master. “Mohanam” this was my sister. The teacher then proceeded with a beautiful piece from Tyagaraja and brought before everyone's eyes the picture of the saint-composer passionately pleading before Lord Rama.
Thus, I was having a nostalgic feeling of my younger days in Srirangam, the temple town in Tamil nadu, which was a beautiful town encircled by two rivers, while sitting in the 15th floor of my Mumbai apartment.
Now, I heard similar voices as in my story. “Hey, Bharat, get up.”. But, this time, it was not at 5.30 but at 12 noon! The voice of my wife became even louder.. “Its already 12 now! What a nice time to get up. You know how we were in our days?”
Bharat is my son only. Still he did not get up. My wife’s voice became louder than ever. This time, to me, in an angry tone, “Hello, why don't you wake him up? You are giving him too much leniency,” it was a missive to me. “Don't you know he went to sleep at 1 a.m after watching late night programmes and listening to jarring music? Who is the fellow with mike and unkempt hair? At his age, I remember my brothers getting up early and learning music or slokas,” lamented my wife.
“Times have changed, leave him out. Let him decide what he wants. He is on vacation,” I intoned.
“What change? It is spoiling the children. I do not know why these children are after the ear-piercing music, fast food, torn jeans, — all evil effects of globalisation” she ranted.
Just now, my son started waking up and din’t go to the bathroom. Instead, he came to the hall, took the newspaper and started studying it. On a way glance, he was also seeing TV (which I was doing). There was a lull after the storm. TV was on and they all set their eyes on the Carnatic music competition for boys and girls. The judge was discussing about the raga of the song. While I was debating the raga, a voice came from behind the newspaper, “Bhairavi”.
I asked, ”How? You haven’t learnt music at all?”
He answered, “What is so great? ‘baggy's cannot understand Bhairavi rag, is it?”
Unfortunately, his answer was right!!!
But the storm started again. My wife said,” Music is divine. You gadget guys cannot understand it.”
My son said, ”Mom, music is just to listen. It gives pleasure to the ears. Thats it. Why do you give divine colour to it?”
She argued, ” You people—with torn jeans, unkempt hair, broken English, fast food eaters, and irresistible gadget lovers have no disciplined way of life. Those days, how were we! Listening to slokas, ragas everyday, playing with good friends, listening to grandma’s stories…what a life to lead! We never dared to speak to our elders. Now you guys... no respect.. ’hi uncle’, ‘hi aunties’ and even a hi to the next door girl.”
Now it was my son’s turn. But this time it was different, completely different. This was the longest ever conversation dialogue… “ Amma, you don’t know that we also crave for such a life. Indirectly, it is parents, who deprive us from these kinds of happiness.
We guys first of all think of our family. Most of us, suffer from ‘single child syndrome’. Have you ever allowed us to stay with our cousins, even during vacations? No. We may visit them once in an year, just for the sake of relationship not to be broken, come back within a day. Even in holidays, you insist us to go to this or that classes.
We have nobody else to play with. Parents have become machines just for the sake of money. We do not have parents when we come home. Nobody else to caress us. Food is kept on the dining table or in the fridge. In the empty flat on high rise buildings what else we can do than watching TV or computer games. We have no open space or playground. Many of us suffer from the ‘empty nest syndrome’.
Listening to grandma stories… huh.. today’s grandmas are preoccupied with mega serials- one after the other- that too, crying along with the characters in the serial. In some cases, there is a fight between a grandma and grandchild also. Child says,” I wanna see Tom and Jerry… while Grandma says,” No.. serial is there today!”. I really do not know who the real child’ here is!!!
Do you allow us to play in the evenings? You want us to go to this or that classes, perform all the activities, that too, what others do not know! It neither leads to education, nor enjoyment. You want us to excel in everything. You parents bombard us with multiple inputs to transform us into ‘super child role models’.
You talked of dining with cousins? Mom, we hardly dine with our fathers. Both come late from office. Where is the time for you people? Do parents sit with us and discuss our problems? No, you go to bed tired, or get engaged in a wordy duel—late night. Elders have no patience and your adjustment problems are affecting us. Do you think that by just paying the school fees your job is over?
We need more communication. We long for a better understanding during this adolescent period. But our parents are too busy to listen to us. They think all the problems of children can be solved by money- by taking him/her to this or that person. Those persons can be ‘you’! And that’s what we yearn for…
The fault just lies not in us. Things have changed. You have changed. You are not what your mom was. The economy has propped up. The world has become a global village. There is cultural mix-up. It has brought inevitable changes in everybody's life. Yes, we are gadget guys because ‘succeed at all cost' is the bane of modern living. But we get huge information exposure we need. We have adapted to the changes in modern day life. We are at a crossroads. We are swimming against cross currents. We stay connected if you provide us the link to the past value systems”.
Thus my son ended his longest speech. I was wondered. He gisted down all the problems faced by today’s children. There was not much of an effect after that, but, he truly spoke like a ‘member representing his generation’!!!
Let them decide where they want to reach. Let us accept them for what they are and not what we want them to be. We are not what our forefathers were.
It’s a myth to talk of a generation gap. Each and every generation faces its own problems and challenges they have to face….
This will be in the form of a story, which, I read and was impressed by it. So I decided to retain the form of narration itself for sustaining reader’s interest.
We will give the narrator of this story a name. Lets say, Ram (since it will suit the story)…. The story runs thus…
“Ram….! Wake up! Its already 5.30 and today is ‘akshya thithi.'. Appa wants you to start “Vishnu sahasranamam” recital today. ”. I was really in a good sleep that day that I din’t want to wake up at all. Seeing my condition, my mother went for an other way itself.
She started pulling my hands to wake me up. She said, ”You won’t change. Let me call your father….”. In those days, I really had a fear as well as a fair amount of respect for our father. Our family had totally 6 people. It was a pretty long family when compared to the present generation (the case of which is described later). I have 4 brothers and one sister.
Ok… Lets get back to the story…
When I starting shifting my bed sheets aside, I could hear the recital, “‘Kausalya Supraja Rama' . . . I woke up to the mellifluous voice from the legend ‘MS.'” My mother interspersed her commands as she proceeded with her sloka along with MS.
So I ran on through the beautiful paddy fields. I saw the beautiful red colour in the sky, the sun slowly starting to rise as I proceeded amazing at the natural beauty of the sky.
I was suddenly drawn to the melody from the paddy field. Looking around, what I saw was an enactment of the beautiful verses from William Wordsworth:
Behold her single in the field,
Yon solitary island lass,
Reaping and singing by herself,
Stop here or gently pass.
I thought of these beautiful lines as I passed through. The swirling river waters meandering through the bamboo grove were enchanting. I sat on the parapet wall on the river bank watching at the morning scenes… An elderly man, possibly in his late 50’s was taking bath and offering prayers to Sun God… On the other side, there was a Banyan tree where women were offering prayers… On the third direction, there was an elephant taking bath, possibly the temple elephant, with the mahout gently patting on it.
As I reached back, my mother was on the doorsteps with her stern looks. “Why are you late? When are you going to correct yourself? Irresponsible,” she shouted. I quietly stood with folded hands before my father. “Did you finish your sandhya vandam? Then “sit down facing the east,” he said and started the mantra. The class thus started.
It was the music class which my father conducted. My sister, who was just 10 years old was readying for her morning music class in the next room. I lent my ears to the music master's “sa, pa, sa” to adjust his sruti.
“Today, we will start a new raga” said the master and thus proceeded sa, re, ga, pa, da, sa, sa, da, pa, ga, re, sa. “What raga” queried the master. “Mohanam” this was my sister. The teacher then proceeded with a beautiful piece from Tyagaraja and brought before everyone's eyes the picture of the saint-composer passionately pleading before Lord Rama.
Thus, I was having a nostalgic feeling of my younger days in Srirangam, the temple town in Tamil nadu, which was a beautiful town encircled by two rivers, while sitting in the 15th floor of my Mumbai apartment.
Now, I heard similar voices as in my story. “Hey, Bharat, get up.”. But, this time, it was not at 5.30 but at 12 noon! The voice of my wife became even louder.. “Its already 12 now! What a nice time to get up. You know how we were in our days?”
Bharat is my son only. Still he did not get up. My wife’s voice became louder than ever. This time, to me, in an angry tone, “Hello, why don't you wake him up? You are giving him too much leniency,” it was a missive to me. “Don't you know he went to sleep at 1 a.m after watching late night programmes and listening to jarring music? Who is the fellow with mike and unkempt hair? At his age, I remember my brothers getting up early and learning music or slokas,” lamented my wife.
“Times have changed, leave him out. Let him decide what he wants. He is on vacation,” I intoned.
“What change? It is spoiling the children. I do not know why these children are after the ear-piercing music, fast food, torn jeans, — all evil effects of globalisation” she ranted.
Just now, my son started waking up and din’t go to the bathroom. Instead, he came to the hall, took the newspaper and started studying it. On a way glance, he was also seeing TV (which I was doing). There was a lull after the storm. TV was on and they all set their eyes on the Carnatic music competition for boys and girls. The judge was discussing about the raga of the song. While I was debating the raga, a voice came from behind the newspaper, “Bhairavi”.
I asked, ”How? You haven’t learnt music at all?”
He answered, “What is so great? ‘baggy's cannot understand Bhairavi rag, is it?”
Unfortunately, his answer was right!!!
But the storm started again. My wife said,” Music is divine. You gadget guys cannot understand it.”
My son said, ”Mom, music is just to listen. It gives pleasure to the ears. Thats it. Why do you give divine colour to it?”
She argued, ” You people—with torn jeans, unkempt hair, broken English, fast food eaters, and irresistible gadget lovers have no disciplined way of life. Those days, how were we! Listening to slokas, ragas everyday, playing with good friends, listening to grandma’s stories…what a life to lead! We never dared to speak to our elders. Now you guys... no respect.. ’hi uncle’, ‘hi aunties’ and even a hi to the next door girl.”
Now it was my son’s turn. But this time it was different, completely different. This was the longest ever conversation dialogue… “ Amma, you don’t know that we also crave for such a life. Indirectly, it is parents, who deprive us from these kinds of happiness.
We guys first of all think of our family. Most of us, suffer from ‘single child syndrome’. Have you ever allowed us to stay with our cousins, even during vacations? No. We may visit them once in an year, just for the sake of relationship not to be broken, come back within a day. Even in holidays, you insist us to go to this or that classes.
We have nobody else to play with. Parents have become machines just for the sake of money. We do not have parents when we come home. Nobody else to caress us. Food is kept on the dining table or in the fridge. In the empty flat on high rise buildings what else we can do than watching TV or computer games. We have no open space or playground. Many of us suffer from the ‘empty nest syndrome’.
Listening to grandma stories… huh.. today’s grandmas are preoccupied with mega serials- one after the other- that too, crying along with the characters in the serial. In some cases, there is a fight between a grandma and grandchild also. Child says,” I wanna see Tom and Jerry… while Grandma says,” No.. serial is there today!”. I really do not know who the real child’ here is!!!
Do you allow us to play in the evenings? You want us to go to this or that classes, perform all the activities, that too, what others do not know! It neither leads to education, nor enjoyment. You want us to excel in everything. You parents bombard us with multiple inputs to transform us into ‘super child role models’.
You talked of dining with cousins? Mom, we hardly dine with our fathers. Both come late from office. Where is the time for you people? Do parents sit with us and discuss our problems? No, you go to bed tired, or get engaged in a wordy duel—late night. Elders have no patience and your adjustment problems are affecting us. Do you think that by just paying the school fees your job is over?
We need more communication. We long for a better understanding during this adolescent period. But our parents are too busy to listen to us. They think all the problems of children can be solved by money- by taking him/her to this or that person. Those persons can be ‘you’! And that’s what we yearn for…
The fault just lies not in us. Things have changed. You have changed. You are not what your mom was. The economy has propped up. The world has become a global village. There is cultural mix-up. It has brought inevitable changes in everybody's life. Yes, we are gadget guys because ‘succeed at all cost' is the bane of modern living. But we get huge information exposure we need. We have adapted to the changes in modern day life. We are at a crossroads. We are swimming against cross currents. We stay connected if you provide us the link to the past value systems”.
Thus my son ended his longest speech. I was wondered. He gisted down all the problems faced by today’s children. There was not much of an effect after that, but, he truly spoke like a ‘member representing his generation’!!!
Let them decide where they want to reach. Let us accept them for what they are and not what we want them to be. We are not what our forefathers were.
It’s a myth to talk of a generation gap. Each and every generation faces its own problems and challenges they have to face….