Generations : Then and Now

.................Sivapriya Krishnan

Its been a while since I blogged. I was urged by a few friends to write on the comaprative similarities and conrasts of the 70's and now , after I circulated a mail with some nostalgic memory recalls !

Much has been said about the older and the present generation, in terms of lifestyle, etc. What I want to write about pervades many more areas of compare and contrast.In doing so , I may also knock the older generation a little for always cribbing about the new and vice versa. Pardon me all ! For the ease of reading, let me name them as Gen Old and Gen Nxt.

The key question is how old is Gen Old?

Gen Old could be taken as people being born in the 50s,60s,70s. Gen Nxt could be the 80s,90, Millenium children. It is amazing to see how suddenly the 50-60-70 borns have suddenly become old compared to their latter counterparts!

The interesting aspect is that some of the 50-60-70 borns are massively catching up with the Gen Nxt, thus collapsing the generation gap. It is the 30-40, borns who are struggling to cope or adjust one way or the other, as they have to battle with remnant memories of the older era and the sweeping changes of the modern era and constantly find their space in this milieu !

Gen Old and Gen Nxt have as many similarities as there are contrasts I guess. This essentially is premised on the fact that humans are the same whichever generation. The contrasts lie in the manner, the spirit, the approach,the expressions, the tools used etc. The contrast also lies in the fact that today everything is blown up and brought to light in front of a larger audience ,thanks to RTI and Media explosion! The fact that technolgoy in all forms has invaded our lives, making us visibly different from our older counterparts.

One major area I see is in the area of marriage and relationships. Gen Old had its equal share of arranged marriages, love marriages and broken marriages as much as Gen Nxt. All of us hear this familiar refrain : "those days we lived like that, we did things like that, we didnt have so many divorces etc", all with a tone of righteous indignation! But scratch the surface, all our families would have stories of inter caste marriages, runaway brides and bridegrooms , separated or estranged couples, adulterous relationships and so on. The difference lies in the way we treat the subject now and the way they treated it then.

Bigamy, polygamy, adultery, divorces were all couched and shrouded under the heavy garb of "secrecy", only spoken about in hushed tones, as a matter of silent gossip and the affected parties accepted many a torture as fait accompli.Inter caste couples wee almost ostracised from the families and had to fend for themselves ! Today we have court room dramas, 24x7 exposures, everybody talks and accepts or rejects it openly and moves on with the next thing on hand.

The next area I would like to compare is the way we dress, the gadgets that we use and the way we talk.

In dressing there still seems to be a divide. The Gen Nxt has gone far away compared to the Gen Old, as it is rather difficult for all and sundry Gen Old to catch up with tank tops, leggings and backless blouses. So the major saviours are the 'salwarkameez',jeans, parallels, tshirts and the ubiquitous "kurtas and the kurtis" , the so called "Indo- Western" dresses, that come in handy for these oldies, to atleast catch up with the new. However it is still possible to see, atleast in South India, an old lady in 9 yards, alongwith her daughter in saree and her grand daughter in mini skirts all in a Pizza joint!!

As for the gadgets, almost all our motor skills have been re written ! If the Gen Old rejected the grinding stones, stoves and buckets, our Gen Nxt have even re written these further by doing away with even these.Packed food, microwaves, washer - driers , more so even unwashed jeans for days together would do !

If the Gen Old were averse to spectacles, hearing aids and other attachments in the body, Gen Nxt wears these as fashion statements! Lean specs, coloured contact lenses, blue tooth, ear phones, iphones, pendrives, laptop bags all adorn the bodies of the Gen Nxt and the Gen Old also have not been spared from these (as they have to catch up ! There are saris being sold with pouches and pockets !!

Posting a letter, gave way to telegrams, gave way to telephones and std calls, gave way to couriers, gave way to emails, have now given way to SMS, MMS and IMs. Gen Old and Gen NXt all are and have to be well versed in all these, as then you are likely to be " ex- communicated "

While taslking Gen Old still believes in milder usage of expletives , and fight shy of using them freely, maybe with an odd word here or there in public. Whereas the Gen Nxt thrives on expletives, undelectable four letterd words, splashed all through their dialogues, in such hurried tones, that the 's' word and the 'f' word alone remain in memory ,with the rest of the statement lost in noise.

English is still used as English by the Gen Old , while u r up & Gr8 Bcoz,u r Gen Nxt.!!!

SPK