The 1980s Born generation of India - Change boomers

So what is so special about the ones who were born in the decade of 1980 in India.

Lets see... We were a generation who did not have TV at their homes as if it was part of our homes. We got it as we grew - may be when we were 5/6/7 years old. So we saw TV. We had our times on Doordarshan - few selected programs. While some of these played, the roads would be deserted , everybody would be watching them like todays cricket match endings. We then got the cable television which initially seemed like a buffet dinner and lunch.


Then we went to school just like any other generations , we realized for an Indian Middle Class family - A home, food, clothes and education were the things our parents dreamt of. Most of us just stopped dreaming and even today cannot dream because we have so much within us - realities bite so hard we dont dream.

Then we saw computers , used it for programming, Saw a world without Google and then started googling. In our childhood we communicated with out friends over letters. As we graduated we moved to emails.  So we moved from one age to another age where world was so small, some student in some city of US had the same questions as us. We realized this with internet.

Remember so far not many had mobile phone.

Then came mobile phones, gadgets for calling, gadgets for texting. Still we used to browse on a desktop.
A lot of us within the age of 25 yrs have travelled more miles than our parents ever did -how? A lot of us went to US, saw a whole new culture. This culture where Car was a necessity and having a car did not mean you are rich, this culture which was very open about relationships, where you could chose your life partner , where drinking was not  a problem, it was normal to have drinks.

This brought us closer and fumed a lot of intercaste, interreligion marriages, looking at us and realizing that we are quite rational a lot of our parents agreed with this first out of culture behaviour.
Now we had money, some of us did not like what we did for this money we switched our profession - Software engineers became teachers, opened restaurants, moved to drama and theatre, with the surplus money we started experimenting. Still at 2011 we were not even thirty and few were in their early thirties.

At this moment we turned back and looked and saw that we already had nephews , neices who were already dreaming. This is the generation which had television as part of the house like food on table. This is the generation for whom mobile phones are gadgets which they started playing with. This is the generation which looks at Facebook to recall birthdays. When we look at them , we do not see us in them. Our parents cannot understand their language. We are the mediators who understand what they are talking and who value what our older generation thinks.

May be every generation thinks about itself this way, but for sure there are facts which back the 80 borns. They are the generation who have seen the values of their parents , the realize money is not easy, but they also realize that they need to live their dreams, fly freely once. This is the generation which can put the values into their kids, this is the generation which will give birth to the next new generation, the new generation which can dream. They will be the ones who will light the future of India. This is the generation which would have seen advanced technologies like laptops, ipads and impossible is not the word they will accept. They will pioneer into every fields and the 80 borns will encourage them in their dreams. Values will come back once we and the new generation realize that money alone is not sufficient for one to be happy.

We will also see a demoralized personal lives and how our lifes are not anymore about food, clothing, home alone and a lot more , but finally we will get to the right blend of values, discipline , money and professionalism.

It happens only in India

Bike in a coracle, with 20 people, we were at the edge of our wits and were worried we will be drowned. But no this is regular in India.

This is not different , of course we are all mammals , further down on the same river side there was some sewage spilling over into the river and people taking "holy dip".

Views

While reading a book -"The idealist view of life", there was one note from author where he says that - the religion and the belief, the practices are something which one inherits from his birth." If you think about it , probably it is the best reuse ever - inheritance - Inheritance of belief, inheritance of religion, inheritance of views about what is right and what is wrong and a lot of day to day practices. We inherit all of these from the families into which we are born. One way this is good, imagine if every one of us were to be born and then understand all of this ourselves - from scratch. It takes a lot of thought and knowledge for a human being to come out of this initial shield and then try to create a different view about religion imposed , and the day to day activities part of it. For example, as we start understanding a lot of the beliefs and scientifically try to reason, we unveil that not all practices are needed or are correct. In this line of inheritance a lot of things have just mutated so much that they are no more valid. Now there is no need that this new view is the right one in the eyes of your society, people who have grown so far in their thought , will now be very staunch about what they now think is right. Because they are the creators of the view, they are not just following something. This can be a better experience if our education systems were equipped to help us question rather than gather information. The Indian education system today just ensures that we know things but does not emphasize enough that we believe, with a reason about what we know and the view we have. While reading one of the books - a philosophical one rather - it was hard to keep up with the topics discussed. Often after a day's work it is hard to sit and concentrate on abstract topics like the ones above. Although the book and the topic is good, its very intense and there is no story. A story does not have to be like the way it is in fiction, but just make you come back to the book to complete what ever the chapter put a question on. This is when I started realizing the importance of stories full of life in Hindu religion to showcase principles of religion. The Vedas , the Upanishads are abstract in this sense, it requires one to concentrate with lot of thought put into whatever is being read. When they realized , it is hard to achieve and propagate this knowledge is its abstract form, the Puranas came into picture. They have colorful stories, Making it easier to still emphasize on what they want to communicate but in a different manner. This is the reason, we have rituals to engage a human beings mind on activities which will keep them busy. If all of this is taken away and if you were to just lead the life - just you as a human being , it would become monotonous for those of us who have not found the real human bonding - love.

Wars

Think about all the wars human beings are fighting across the countries. There are more than 2000 battles fought for Jerusalem alone historically and even today, as per one of the theories America needs to be engaged in a war all the time to support their economy.

Each country has fought its own battle for freedom, or to defend their territories. If only there was no war or battle or fights, where would have we invested all those resources into.

Yes, quite unrealistic, that we will ever be in a situation that requires no war ever. The people lost in both the world wars are quite enough for one to think over his whole life . In my mind, i think if the whole world had been like the typical Bangalorean - mind your own business attitude, we would have invested quite a bit of our war budget into some research, which might have improved our standards of living more than inventing the new and more advanced missiles.
Probably in bridging the gap between poor and rich, not sure or we would have already been to mars by now. You can never know .

Nevertheless its just a thought!!!!