Friends, scripts from this article has been published today in HT City (22.04.2012) under the column "City Scape"
One of my students, Sandip Shukla pinged me a message:
Man-
Beta, What’s your age?
Boy-
Well,
I am 14 at
home,
12 at School,
7 while boarding a train and …..17 on facebook.
Meanwhile,
you enjoy this joke, I wish to quote David Bowie , “ We have created a child
who will be so exposed to the media that he will be lost to his parents by the
time he is 12.”(In Melody Maker 22January 1972)
***
During the last ten years, the capital of Jharkhand, Ranchi
has gone through many changes. And that
too, with an electrifying speed! These changes are much faster than what has
been anticipated. Now the city Municipal Corporation for its developmental
projects and expansion has an annual budget of more than a crore. Of course,
Ranchiites are moving towards vertical growth and we are breathing into a
post-modernist world. Space and time have been shrunk and these changes have
directly influenced our life style. The ethos of globalization is in the air.
And, the market is alluring our young generation- the most vital potential
customers for the market. With the entrance of Multiplexes and Malls like
Eyelex, Glitz, ( PVR is coming soon!) ,
big brand companies like Reliance Mart, Big Bazzar, KFC, Domino Pizza, Big
Shop, Levies, Denim and so on in the
city, the youth are going for a materialistic branded life. They now prefer
wearing Calvin Klein jeans, Swiss watches, branded trousers, going in beauty
parlors for stylish hairdo instead of oiling it, tattooing, enjoying coffee with their partners in Café Coffee Day (replacing Madras Coffee House),
flashing and looking the world through Ray ban sun glasses, riding on power
bikes, forming stunt bikers’ clubs, hitting the roads with lavish shoes,
Highway dhaba culture, fast-food joints, taking salsa classes, getting addicted
to drugs and facebook and the list is endless. Market has trapped them and they
are entrapped with its side-effects. They are becoming exhibitionists. Skipping
classes and whiling away their time in making MMSs have killed their
creativity. Unknowingly, they are
delving into an artificial “Prufrock-ian “world. Our youths are becoming
pre-matured addicts of this porno world. Many of the girls are going for
colpoperineoplasty (the process of restoring virginity).
Dandyism is new for our young
generation but the west has already tasted its repercussions. Now, it’s time
for our Ranchiites. Depression, nervosa psychosis, drug addiction, seclusion,
sexual perversions, emotional strokes and other mental disorders are some of
them. The worst of all is the growing suicidal tendencies in our youths.
Recently, the prime Towers and multi-storied buildings of the city have become
(mis-)happening rendezvous. Suicidal tendency among the city youth is taking a
shape of mass hysteria. Going way- ward and off –the- roots are in vogue. Transfixed with alien cultures coming through
“ thora dish karo, wish karo”- dish TVs and multi-channels, internet and other
electronic media and aping the MTV Roodies-type life-styles have really made them culturally mongrels. Paltu Kaku in Upamnyu Chatterjee’s English,
August loves to call them “ Cola generation”. We are depriving them of
cultural coherence.
Their academic orientation has got changed besides their
preferences. Except BPO sectors, our students have miserably failed in their
core areas. This is a result of wrong orientation, wrong choice and impatience.
Many of them are in mad race knowing not whither should they go.
But what should be the solutions of this alienation among
youths? Recently, I met Dr.
ChandraPrakash Dwivedi, the director of the TV serial Upanishad- Ganga and
asked him, “ How would you invite the uprooted youth of our nation to be your
audience who don’t wait, rather they go
on a date; who don’t know Mallika
Sarabhai, rather they are interested in Mallika Sherwat ; who are ignorant
about Bapu and take him as Munna Bhai
MBBS?” and he snapped, “Our youths should understand that they would not always
be a youth, they have to grow anyhow, sooner the better. They will have to
shoulder on the responsibility of preserving our Indian ethics and culture.” On
the matter of right selection and choice, Meghnath da, the National Film Award winner
of the last year very appropriately opined, “It’s an age of electronic media
and IT. Why to depend upon channels and Cinema multiplexes and “Dirty Picture”
halls? Today we have the CDs of
knowledge-based quality movie of our choice, say Mother India or Inside Job and we
can federalize it through community film societies as living in apartments have
made the process simpler.”
Undoubtedly, our youths have immense possibilities.
All they need is to strike a balance. Their materialistic pursuits and ambition
should be equalized with the spiritual quests. They should go for yoga and
meditative sessions. They should also spend some time in rendering social
services. They should understand that life is not only enjoying the fragrance
of flowers, rather the roots deep within also demand proper care. After all,
Ranchi has entered into a Post-
modernist world
