If you were to take a sneak peek into my state of mind at the moment, you’d find a cocktail of thoughts and emotions. Seems like I am stuck in the legendary battle of the ages, between two sets of generations. One B.M. (before M.E.) and other A.M. (after M.E.); where M.E. is My Era.
Irrespective of which category you fall in, I’m sure you’d be nodding your heads in affirmation. Coz I know almost every individual at some point in time has felt the same.
Yes! This has been the dilemma of one and all generations. More the gap, larger is the difference in value system and beliefs. But amazingly all are right. And as I quote ‘right’, here’s another debatable topic- What’s right? Who defines it? Is there a base to which the comparison can be drawn? And the moment we begin to set base, representatives from all ages would have whole lot of interjections to make. And there will be comments on circumstances, availability of resources, education, mind set, exposure, etc. and each would go on defining: ‘right’.
Nevertheless, the most common and favourite dialogue between the 2-gens remains the same.
B.M. : We had limited or less resources & education but we had strong value systems, quality thoughts, qualitative education with strong basics and immense patience. We respected elders, never raised our voice in front of them. We were hardworking and focused in life.
But the M.E.’s and A.M.’s lack in all of them despite abundance in resources and education. They have no routine, don’t take healthy diet, are always after gadgets and don’t value what we say but are always after friends. We say things out of our experience, but they think we are fools!
A.M. : We have more resources & exposure that’s why we are more technologically sound, broad minded and outgoing. We like taking risks & stretching our limits. We look at other options than just being doctors, engineers, lawyers and professors. And we know, even you wanted to do so but then you did not talk back to your elders, not even to put your point across.
‘Respect’, we give to those only who deserve it, who give us respect too and we do not believe in showing it off.
Routine is boring to us. We do same things at different times and different things, each time, every other day. Hardworking is passé; we work smart. For you G.K. was General Knowledge, but G.K. to us it is Google Knowledge or Greater Kailash market.
Healthy diets: we have more packed products, more junk, adulterated food, busy and fast times. But don’t worry, we are coping up well.
And thanks for your advice, though we appreciate it more when we ask for it, which we seldom do because we listen to friends more.
Everyday you want us home coz its paradise. And if you think of yourselves as fools, we are definitely living is Fool’s Paradise.
M.E. : (Speechless)
(Not because, it is hard for us to take our stand. Not because we relate to some of both sides. But because all are ‘right’ in their perspectives and given circumstances. Agreeing to both the generations at different points, and trying to make our both world’s meet, we fight our own struggle.
The moment we back A.M.’s, we are told that we’d face the same situation some day and then we (M.E.’s) will realize the sentiments of B.M.’s. And just when we support B.M.’s, an anecdote from our lives is tossed towards us by A.M.’s, where we had defied the B.M.’s and they had given into our demands.
And we stand there ‘tongue tied’ between the ‘battle of the ages’.)
We all know that ‘change is constant’, yet we find it hard to acknowledge. With every passing phase in life, our expectations are soaring high. We start looking up at our experiences & achievements, but never forget to look down on that of others.
Why this battle of the ages???
Will it ever end???
Or we all will keep it alive and keep striving???
Guess ‘showdown’ is basic human nature.
They keep contemplating the past and manipulating the future, while the present if they look at is ‘decent’.
