The Generation Gap

12 comments
Every time an old song plays on TV, my Dad will be ready with the same monologue that has been echoing in my house since time immemorial. He starts off with, "What a great song! Those days..." and he closes his eyes as though he's going into a state of semi-enlightenment and continues,"Those were the days, golden days..I watched this movie in Shivaji theatre. It was so moving, so good. See Sharmila Tagore, She looks so beautiful". My eyes were transfixed on the beehive. Did you just ask "What Beehive?" then, you must be from my father's generation. Please ignore my comment.

Then he gives a break till the song is over and now comes the much awaited salvo, "These days, I don't know what songs they come up with. They are absolutely meaningless". He changes the channel and he stops at MTV, scrutinises the songs, looks sadly at us like we are some unfortunate urchins starved of the wonderful culture that his generation had.

Every generation is the same I guess. I'm sure when the TV made its first appearance on the hall table, my grandmother would have looked at it, fretted and disgustingly told my dad that listening to the the radio was a lost art. It was something his generation would never understand, even though reception in the radio was a result of a thousand agile karate chops sensible enough not to break it, but make it play. It was a skill, something that my father's generation would never understand.

This tradition can be traced back to early men, I guess. The earlier men would have sulked at the sight of a wheel. They would have gasped, "gujumb gujumb gujumba" which roughly translates into, "Oh my god! Do we now have to rely on this nonsensical shapeless things for god knows what! By the way, why was this invented in the first place? Shoes ought to have come before this. These bare feet, killing me, I tell you!"

Who knows apes would have frowned at the "missing link character" who was suddenly developing something that centuries later was called a backbone. "Tch tch, see how these youngsters act, trying to stand up with their front limbs, no respect at all!". Imagine if that hadn't happened, I would have been on some tree plucking berries and my ears alternatively. Thank god for the missing link! I can't imagine how the granny apes would have reacted to the opposable thumb. Lets not go there.

I don't think any generation will be free of this curse. Every day I get a mail saying you are a 90's kid if you watched Shaktimaan, if you read Chacha chowdary, if you played lagori, if you pooped on the road, and other convoluted cornucopia of things. What if you haven't? I know many people who have the gall to ask if Chacha chowdary is my actual chacha! But they are 90's kids! I know their birthdays.

So today I want to make a resolution to never comment on my next generation, no matter how much they rot in facebook, live their lives out of potato chip packets, the amount of pocket money they get that equals my monthly salary, the way they strut in front of cafes in skimpy clothes, the unfortunate souls who'll never know what a single screen theatre would look like, who may think that Shaktimaan is a character from Ramayan which is a bloody gaming extravaganza like counter-strike, I mean if they know counterstrike that is.

Wait! Did I just break my resolution?

Ah well!

12 comments:

  1. You have a very rich imagination by the way. :) In addition to your extraordinary sense of humor by the way. :) But yeah.. as you said in your trademark satirical style, every generation has that air or aura about themselves that makes them detest or scorn the next one.

    P.S: I like the resolution (and the temporary breach)! ;)

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  2. These days you don't even have to be from a different generation to notice the difference, even people like my sister have starkly different lifestyles compared to us. I showed her a VCR tape once and she asked me what it was - so there you go.

    The humor topping on this theme was super delicious.

    Cheers :)

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  3. It's not about generation gap. When we are young, we have impressionable minds and we fall in love with what we hear/see. When we grow older, we fail to appreciate such things. Somehow, we tend to remember the positive experiences we had during our younger years and refuse to accept anything else. It's the influence and innocence of that age, nothing to do with actual events.

    Destination Infinity

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  4. I second Destination Infinity's comment above. :)

    Ana, another post of yours where you have stuck to just one topic. Well done! Hilarious as always! :D

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  5. I worry about the fact that a generation that is growing up on status updates, Chetan Bhagat and Hindi hip-hop will be taking over ruling the country in another few decades time. Then I remind myself that our parents felt the same way about us. I console myself that we have turned out all right really. Then I look around at the world we have created and I am not so sure again. Thanks for writing on this topic that resonates with every generation.

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  6. I third Destination Infinity's comment ;) :D.

    BTW another awesome post :D. Had me laughing at the last part ;) :P :D. I just remembered that a few days ago when I had been to a get-together party the same thing had come up and my aunt summed it up in this way:
    Your grandparents loved Aloo Bonda and Bajji and all. But their kids, that is your parents loved Pani Puri and all other chats. For the grandparents it was a disgust. In the same way, us kids eat Pizza and Burgers and it disgusts our parents :P :P.

    I dont know how :O but this relates somehow to your post :| :( :P.

    Just today I was wondering why you hadn't posted since a long time :( and lo you did :D. Really happy ;) :D <3

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  7. What can I say. You know When I go for my shift and watch people outside it is sometimes funny, sometimes I get angry.. how different criteria's apply , what we di when i was young, what these day young people do .. The ideas etc etc have all changed.

    I have gone on a tangent here I think :)

    a lovely post though reminded me of the Good old days .. but then each generation thinks of their own good old days always ..

    Bikram's

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  8. ha ha....yup Dad Mom uncle aunt dey always have grt stories abt der rich past nd hw me degraded genY r living..devoid of morale ....,but they miss d mst imp point dat "if d Apes had decided they wud not leave behind der tails and transform into a more Humane Homo-sapiens " we need to accept d change and embrace it instead of drawing analogies ..nice post...enjyed thoroughly :)

    campbuzzz.blogspot.in/2012/04/hinglish-poetry.html

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  9. Very hilarious post...I connect absolutely with the first 2 paras...but whenever i am tempted to raise my eyebrows at some PYT i recall how i too followed current fashions.

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  10. Ana please visit this link for a pleasant surprise http://jeeteraho.blogspot.in/2012/04/one-step-at-time.html

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  11. postingan yang bagus tentang"The Generation Gap"

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