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My generation is confused. For our parents it was easier. Simple hard working families whose aim it was to move from middle class to upper middle class; to move from a two-wheeler to a small car. The men spent almost their entire lives with the same employer. The women stayed home and raised their children. Life was hard work, but straightforward. For our children too, life will be easier. Jet setting kids, in a fast paced world. Living for themselves, staying in step with the latest and the best and enjoying all that life has to offer. In short my parents lived to make a solid future for their family and my kids will live to enjoy their life to the fullest.
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Where does that leave me? Generation question mark, I should call us. For, we are the ones who saw our parents struggle, but don�t want our kids to have to. We are the ones who didn�t have much, but want our kids to have it all. We are the ones who were never pampered as children, but want to pamper our own. We are the ones who would never expect our parents to live alone and yet would never expect our kids to live with us when they grow up. We are the ones gluing two generations together. Two generations so diverse that the stories of one would surely be History lessons for the other.
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My generation wants to have the best of both these worlds. The women are educated now, the men more ambitious. The world is a smaller place, society is more open and global awareness is much higher.
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As a working mother, I consider all similar women faced with the worst predicament of all. For, handling a career and a growing child could easily be one of the most difficult balancing acts in the world. We want a family, but we don�t want to see fifteen years of education go down the drain. Some will convince themselves that the children won�t be affected by not having a full time mom. Others will hope that a gap of a couple of years will not be an issue when they come back into the job market. Both are wrong. For, there is no right way and no right answers. There is only a choice that we all make.
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For men too, it is difficult. Though they have seen their mother spend her entire life doing nothing else other than looking after her husband and children, that is not the life they envision, for their daughter. They dream, instead of magnificent achievements because they want more than anything else for their daughter to be her own person. Mind you, they would always continue to have the highest regard for their mothers who would stand incomparable to any other human being on the planet.
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So once again, where does that leave us? Traditional at heart, but modern in the mind? Or forward looking yet conventional? We are the link between the old and the new and hence we are lost, ourselves.
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We will be the decision makers and will shape the lives of the generations ahead. Will we chose to migrate to Canada or US or will we stay on in India? Will we push our children to become doctors and engineers or will we allow them to follow their heart and become artists, musicians and poets? Will we insist that our children marry within the community or will we accept whomever they bring forth?
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So much power in the hands of a confused bunch of people! Wish we could have had it some other way. But there is neither an easier way, nor any right answers. There is only a choice that we all make.
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The choices we make determine the lives we lead. The strength with which the link holds both sides together determines the future of the nation and its people.
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So for all those of you, who are a part of my generation, make your choices fast, stick with your decisions and remember that if it were not for the link, indeed there would be no chain.
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