In two generations

Is time flying on wings? Wings of change and revolution? The topic for contemplation of my idle mind was the changes that have taken place in just two generations.

No gas stove or microwave oven when I was a kid. But grandma's charcoal or mud stoves gave me far more tasty, fragrant, nutritious food! We had all the time in the world to grind masala in the stone 'ammi'. Our hearty appetites were surely not disappointed. Now with mixie, grinder & other kitchen gadgets we still hurry on our toes & buy readymade pastes & powders. We are career women busy running the world with little time to spend with our children or elders.

They have the good fortune of viewing TV, DVD's and video games, getting educated in the process or becoming slaves of elctronic entertainment utterly devoid of human touch. Joint families with lots of cousins to play with, compete with & mature with healthily have vanished. Pampered single children with extra intelligence & also self-centred arrogance are the norm of the day. A hefty sum spent to educate them. Upto fifth class we carried slates & left school with rudimentary knowledge of sciences whereas my preschool grandchildren have a bagful of accessories to carry on their backs and their little brains mastering intricate figures of writing with easy standing lines & sleeping lines! If our children mastered science facts in high school, our grandchildren will absorb them in middle school!

Today's children are invariably whiz kids with absolute mastery of computer navigation. Schools have websites from where parents are to note down the class curriculum, activities for the week, syllabus for the month & even progress report! Project works, camps, picnics, practical activities in classrooms for toddlers leave me stunned in disbelief at such a vast change within two generations.

Increase in travel, in number of vehicles, flourishing commercial houses, malls mark the giant leap in consumerism. Eating- out fashions, fatty snacks in packets, junk food, fast food joints aid and abet a lazy, unhealthy lifestyle leading to childhood & adult obesity and unheard of illnesses. The recent deluge of choices has swept away all sense of discrimination and moderation!

Globalisation within a generation's time has wrought changes in all spheres of life- in marriage, in social traditions, cultural patterns, moral concepts and goals. Formal and informal behaviour rules have changed leaving older generation aghast & the younger generation ruthlessly selfish. No autocracy of fathers. Nowadays grown up children do not need parental guidance or advice, neither do they attach sentimental attachment to blessings of elders as of yore. Of course, I am not generalising. Am only outlining the emerging trends.

To conclude, in spite of all the obvious advancement of science and technology have we not lost something precious in our past generation? The human tenderness, awareness about social welfare and sane foresight seem to be pathetically missing. With our nuclear adventures, cloning, bio-engineering gimmicks are we digging our own grave? Where is this mad race leading us to?

Becoming fully dependent on machines, electricity, electronic machines is only crippling our self-dependency, self-sufficiency. Some serious concerns from one having seen both the worlds!