On Bridging Generation-Gap 

 

       

By  – Pamarty Venkataramana

 

 

Generation after generation, mankind has been witnessing changes in societal mores. Newer technologies have brought in their wake newer crop of problems such as huge unemployment and consequential higher crime rates. Day in and day out,depressing newscasts confront us with ghory news of ‘runaway’ girls being butchered and bodily parts being stashed away in refrigerators or thrown to garbage in dirty canals or forest areas. The decadence in society is neither gender-specific nor is it related to matters of flesh-trade and lure of money alone.

 

A deeper research and analysis shows a studied silence being maintained by all powers that be. Reason is not far to seek. Vote bank politics besides inability of Parliamentarians to enact the uniform civil code top the list of causative factors for this sorrow state of affairs to prevail.

 

A psychological angle would unveil the so-called ‘generation gap’ as being the main villain.

‘Generation-Gap’ is as artificial and as empty an euphemism as the proverbial ‘Gordion Knot’.

India still holds on to priceless tenets of Sanatana Dharma. Therefore, collateral damage appears minimal as compared to foreign lands. There still remains hope for succour and rescue from a total downfall of the next generation in hands of the current generation.

More than the play of genes,the mental make-up and psyche plays a pivotal role in the recurring phenomenon of ‘generation gap’.

How and why?

We often hear of elders remarking about not having received any pocket-money during their childhood-days even as they pamper their progeny with huge purses and junk food as well as things thrust upon the household via marketing companies screaming out from smartphones,television sets or your friendly neighbourhood gangs of busybodies. Then,there is talk of parents having had to wade through streams and rivers to and from schools in far-flung towns even as they permit adoloscents to drive on the fast-lane or flock to far-off foreign shores for prosecuting highet studies. There are umpteen other instances if one were to dissect and expose the hypocrisy and dilemmas faced by parents and the children. 

One major factor for the increasing acrimony and bitterness between generations in recent decades has been the collapse of the joint family structure when at least three generations of a family were co-existing : they all lived together under one roof and acted as shock-absorbers in event of calamities apart from distribution of happiness in joyous times. The emotional quotient was full and to the brim. 

Eventually,as horizons broadened wirh outside world beckoning to them via monsters such as inflation and others wars having fatal repurcussions in peace loving countries including our motherland,next generation began to turn into birds and visits back home turned out to be merely seasonal affairs.  Affairs at office places and even in college campuses took the place of pride,occupying their psyche and transforming them into obsessed ‘adventurers’ -(thereby obfuscating core values of familial bonds and traditional practices).

The fall-out of growth and entrenchment of generation-gap as a plausible excuse for inexcusable jaunts,flings and deterioration in value-based habits has been so rapid that all things once considered to be vices have under label of fashion and modernity successfully destroyed sense of belonging,sanctity and holiness of an orderly lifestyle.

Chaos and confusion in minds of the Next Generation who are actually rudderless with none in society shouldering their reponsibility as compared to a disgruntled generation of elders who had similarly experimented with their youthhood and lifetime only to rue their folly coupled with eternal bitterness at inability to stop the next generation from repetition of their blunders,is the real scenario of society,today.

The fault squarely lies with older generation even as all blame rests upon the next generation.

Only a well laid down law by way of an edict ingrained into law of the land and properly adhered to by the next generation of elders can hope to reset the fall of mankind. A conscious effort has to be made by enlightened influencers in our country to help steer India back to a society which shall succeed in its witch-hunt against monstrous practices and vices which have been engulfing minds of our next generation.

 

All things considered,generation gap is a ‘state of mind’ and throws the cobweb-thinking of ‘generation gap’ out of the window. 

One solution as is being noticed with trends among celebrated achievers of society is to support wedlocks of spouses claiming a larger age-gap than the stabdard filmy-talk of five years bridge: maturity of male and emotional security of the female partner alone can ensure a happy matrimonial life.

 

A happy couple would tend,care and insure that the next generation of this household-unit would live as a close-knit family. Many foreign lands are soon embracing Sanatana Dharma of India to erase stigma mushrooming worldwide,being commonly called as the ‘generation gap’.

 

Let Love rule minds too and not just the hearts of all generations,generation after generation. An enlightened generation will help erase scars of attitudinal differences which distanced parents from children and grandchildren from roots of birth. 

 

It is pertinent to remember that love flows downwards and regard flows upwards. Only a mutual bonding can bind one and all age-groups and relations together. Time and far away maxims do not help bridge any such imaginary gaps between generations of Humanity.

 

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