Generation Strange:

I love to bait and then bash the new generations….the present day teens and kids. I believe that they are a highly pampered, irresponsible and a precocious bunch who will never have any true understanding of life and nature. I have always held my generation and those previous in very high regards….and why not….we have gone thru a phase where we did not have anything to a phase where we have almost everything. Hence who would know life better than us?

And then I saw a 3-4 years old girl wearing a halter-ish gown with a slit upto the thigh. The dress was pretty and the girl looked cute….but why force fashion and sexuality on a such little girl…isn’t the world already a bad bad place without inviting the big bad wolves lurking everywhere?

My ex-boss’s eight-year-old son goes to an elite school in Delhi. She said that she never pampers her son. And in the same breath told us that she bought him a Nokia handset costing Rs13000. It is a necessity for a child to have a mobile…coz the working mother needs to keep a tab. All agreed given the situation….but why a Rs. 13k phone?

A friend who works in an advertising agency told me a rather sad tale the other day. A proud father had approached her with his son’s portfolio. He had done many ads in the past. The father soon became aggressive and called her up day and night telling her that his son had worked with all the agencies except hers. He met her, cajoled her and messaged her till the time an opportunity came up. On the shoot day which was almost towards the evening, they landed up. The boy looked tired and could not perform. The mother informed her that he’s been shooting since morning. Instead of being sympathetic, the mom shouted at the kid that if he didn’t get the shot right, he’ll get a slap. Whatever happened to the concept of childhood or is it always about the money and parents’ ambition?

Suddenly I realized that all these kids and teens have parents who are my age group or perhaps a decade older. So I cannot really blame them but rather blame the very generation I thought was intelligent and grounded enough to know and understand life. These parents, in an effort to get the best out of everything, have messed up not only their lives but many generations to come.

And since the downfall has already started, I can only look at these 30-somethings, sigh and wonder….what went wrong.