Coming from your stereotypical middle class family, a picture perfect family life is what I believed to have lived for most years of my existence.Normalcy was the golden goal.Sunday lunch was exciting. Parks were picnic spots.There was never a seperate concept of “family time”.No siblings to bother about.Parents who never fought.A life that revolved around report cards,temple visits,cricket,movies and pav bhaji.Simple. Uncomplicated.Never really had the need to question suburban utopia.Ignorance was bliss.Knowledge came from text books.A whole generation passed through this sieve where compromise was taken for granted and the need for more was a discipline breach.
Newtons third law.
This generation has passed on from being sure of utilising whatever options they had to being headless chickens stumbling from one chance to another in an orgy of choice.As a proud card carrying member of this lot I resent these wistful talks about being a part of a generation with no values.
I dont disagree. I just resent it.
True.We are a bunch of pot smoking ,aimless , committment phobic,pissed off,selfish leeches.But theres no real reason to feel bad about it.It is but a mere blip on the otherwise long winded process of evolution.
We are comfortable in our tarnished skins.We've adapted,we've realised and we've moved on.It might not be pretty but atleast its honest.We are shallow cause we choose not destroy our today in the hope of a more stable tomorrow.We are selfish because we dont have grand dreams of handing over this already overpopulated world to my children who will probably even more shameless and indifferent than us.
Its a fuckin short life. Would you really hold it gainst me if i choose not spend it trying to fit into someone else's idea of perfection.
We dont subscribe to your values.We need better reasons than it was supposed to be done this way/it always has been done this way.Escapist statements to say the least but surprisingly effective.
Our concience depends on which side of the bed we get up on.We leave judgements behind in our eternal quest to be cool.So keep the justifications to yourself. It doesnt help me in my quest for social rejection.
We believed all is well in our homes and talked grandly about tradition,culture and family values. All the while lookin down upon the ones who were having fun and pitying them for their lack of any social bond.We were born at a time when hypocricy developed into a fine art and living in denial was the holy grail.
For all our posing the great indian middle class has enough skeletons in its cupboards to put the biggest mass grave to shame.
They wont allow their daughters to date but will suffer in silence if she's been molested by a family member.
They will look down upon us spending money in bars and then drop their hard earned money into the temples piggy bank.
When all arguements fail they point to god.End of the matter.Theyve washed their hands off it. God willed.Who the fuck gave an already jaded mortal the right to question.
I Envy them at times.They Somehow have this wonderful ability to look through the obvious.See what they want to see.Believe what they want to believe.If it cant be done in real lets settle for second best.
Hope it helps them now.See through this.We are not fucked up.Its just an illusion.We arent morally corrupt.Its gods will.We arent aimless.We just have nowhere to go.
5 comments:
We aren't aimless - true.
We have nowhere to go - not true.
We are making a place which is worth going. I hate to believe I have nowhere to go in life. Of course I do. A place where hitchhiking is normal and not visiting a temple doesnt mean i am an atheist and where there is a higher goal than making money but money is not a taboo either.
I could write a whole new post here abt that, but I will refrain considering we have to go out for a smoke :P
touché my friend; you speak my heart out on this issue and kudos for being so brutally honest about the clichés of middle class Indian society.
There are issues that come with each generation. Your view, grand as it might seem, and totally honest that it is, seems myopic in the larger scheme of things. So while you blatantly run down upon another generation's POV and their 'doing things the way it is supposed to be done or has been done' is something I totally totally agree with, there are so many issues of our own generation that you tend to overlook. I'm not siding with the 'poor' blokes from my parents' generation whose lives seem so simple and uncomplicated (envy them at times) because a lot for them is just black or white, while we (urban lot) pretty much fall into the greys. I resent having to do things that I am told to, with the reason being - Because we told you so. We look for reasons, for answers and grope in the dark, stumble even, to get to them. Push boundaries, like you would rather put it, to discover ourselves. But you can't blame them for having an opinion about us (some of which is skewed, but true at times) just the way you are having an opinion about them. you want them not to judge you, but as you say it, you judge them yourself. pity. all true and something i relate to almost 99%, the angst is felt too, but the way you question why they drop money into the temple's piggybanks, ever questioned why you drop it into a pint of beer? Both give satisfaction and happiness. Ultimate goals reached. Just different ways of looking at it.
PS - the piece is as hard-hitting and thought-provoking as ever
@ Jinu : Having somewher to go n focusing soleley on that destroys the beauty of the journey. Its a difference of opinion and ill live with it :D
@ yasho: Thanks bro
@ Dhvani: The difference between dropping money in a pint of beer and dropping money in a temple is that the satisfaction felt is real and not based on wishful thinking.
and yes..thanks for the feedback.I love people who disagree.
you shouldn't be talking about satisfaction that is real :)
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