youth on crossroads

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)

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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