Some personal thoughts

My generation has a problem. We think we know everything. We have an opinion about everything, mostly inflexible and we usually don't get along well with people who express a different opinion. The art of listening seems to be a mystery. To be honest, it is not so much a problem of our generation as it is of our times. We are taught to be competitive and assertive. We are well read, thanks to the infinite number of media providing us with useful and useless information. We read five to ten different newspapers, not necessarily from one country, and express five to ten different opinions on the same topic. We are disgusted over 26/11 but not necessarily over other natural/man-made catastrophes which are comparatively less trendy. We fret and fume over some useless twitter remarks (cattle class and holy cows) but don't really care about what we say, whether in public or private. We assume and believe that the right to expression means criticizing anyone who doesn't stick to our world view. And of course, we believe our world view is right.

We are forever updating our facebook/gmail/twitter statuses to something intelligent and unique. Oh yes, the pressure to be unique, the pressure to stand out from the crowd drives our every action, thought and moment. We are busy taking quizes in facebook that tell us (and everybody in our friends' list) how intelligent we are, how well endowed we are, how good we are in bed etc.

But here comes the paradox. We have an opinion about everything and yet we are disillusioned about most of the things happening around us. Oh! This disillusionment is a trendy topic too and comes polished under various titles (quarter life crisis, blogger's block etc). But we do sometimes experience this deep loneliness and frustration. And then everything becomes meaningless for us.

If I offended anyone by using the word "we" instead of "I" and "ours" instead of "mine", my apologies. I was going through the above said emotions for a good part of the day and was sulking just fifteen minutes back. And then my dad called. Probably parents do have sixth sense. Dad and I talked. Not necessarily heavy stuff like "Obama's Indian policy" or "Intel's Jerusalem plans" but simple, general stuff that you cannot classify under any category. It was a heart warming conversation. Whenever I think of my parent's generation I can't help but admire them. Their way of life, their hardships, their thrill of achievement, their times. Oh! Did they kick ass during their times!! :) Maybe it's a foolish nostalgia for an era which I can never witness. But let it be.

In these days of vulgar self-exhibitionism and unashamed self-indulgence, a reminder of what our previous generation had to go through to put us where we are, is a necessity and relief.