Generation "Why?"

“Only you know how things should be done, our experience and age does not have any value!!” How many times have you heard this universal sarcastic dialogue by your Dad or Mom? I can’t even keep count.

This is an example of what the infamous generation gap. Our previous generation feels there is something terribly wrong with our generation and vice versa. This is a common story with each generation. But seriously, what’s with this generation of youth? There is something totally off about this generation of 25+ young India. I am not sure what should we be calling ourselves, Gen X, Y, Z? No idea. But whatever we are, we are very different than our previous generation at this age. WE are the age of Rebel. We think “hatke”. We have open minds and open eyes, out and away from the blinding influences of society and religious superstitions. We use logic! In everything. Every sentence spoken by an individual, be it your Dad or Mom or friend or professor or any random guy on the street is taken up and analyzed in the meter of logic and then acted upon. We never accept anything blindly. Science has been taught to us since our childhood. It is taught to every generation. We may not be inventors, but we are definitely the best in utilization of science. From movies to random discussions over tea, from analyzing religious rituals to colors of traffic signals, we analyze each molecule and atom  and debate over everything under the sun. From myths to unknown corners of the earth, we explore everything. We never accept anything without a proper reason which would appear “valid” to us. My mother’s biggest frustration about me is that I never accept anything she asks me to do blindly. I always ask a lot of questions. That’s another thing which comes with this generation. We ask a lot of questions. There is always a “why” and a “how” waiting at the end of every statement. It is not that we are afraid of change. Nope. We are change! We want to change everything in the world, if possible even the color of leaves! It is just that we have this undying urge to know every detail going on behind every statement. Again, we analyze.

The “think out of the box” phrase fits to the core to this generation. We think so differently that the British Rule of India also appears as a necessity of time and a good thing that might have happened to India. This is what a friend said yesterday. Her logic was, British rule brought every Indian close to each other and taught us to look beyond the made up differences of caste and culture to act as a nation. We would never have learnt the meaning of freedom if we would not have been colonized. I did not have words to defy her. Because that actually made sense, and I ended up agreeing to that. If you come to think of it, our nation before British Raj, might have taken another 2 centuries to be where we are today, because there would not have been anyone to poke logic and reason in people to see that the tiny princely states were not the boundaries of any country, but hundred more such princely states actually made up this huge and proud nation which once had the potential to be the called the richest nation of the world. We never saw what we had, everyone else from the other side of the borders saw it. That’s probably the reason Indian subcontinent was looted, ruled and colonized by so many different nations and communities over the pages of history. Out and away from the box, right? But its true and you cannot possibly deny this fact. This and so many more is what this generation is all about.

Independence is so deep rooted in us that we always seek for ourselves. First we see with our own eyes and then decide whether to believe or not. We are one speculative race. Trying out new things is the new cool. We don’t have a fear bone in our body. To get scared, we watch horror movies! But you just give a reason of forbidding us from something, “courage” would be redefined that second. My dad once remarked that this generation is not afraid to speak their mind out. This generation is bold enough to accept their true identity and move to greater heights in their life. Yes, we do. We have the courage to express our views and thoughts out loud. The things which may not be suitable for a discussion at the dinner table with parents are still expressed to them through different media, like blogs for example. And boy, do we know the proper use of social media? Tell me about it! Facebook and twitter are more popular than mass media itself. Even if someone does not follow TOI news, he/she would definitely follow Twitter and have a Facebook account. Though mostly these are used to give insight to our personal lives, these social media are also used to run movements, support boycotts and raise out voice for the greater good. We are the folks who fight against injustice through candle march, we fight for women empowerment and against each and everything wrong under the sun! We are a new trend.

And we love speed. Oh yes! This mobile generation does not want to waste one second in the course of waiting. Patience used to be a virtue, which we do not seem to care about. Everything is required to be done within milliseconds. Time sometimes runs slower than us. We are all multi-talented multi-taskers. There would be more than two jobs completed within the time span of one work. Fast is our middle name. Some times time is not fast enough for us. But still we somehow manage to be always late! Punctuality has a new definition for this age. We would go extinct without technology and technology would not evolve faster with time for us. Trying to crunch everything within a short span, we sometimes tend to miss out on important moments of life. But no, not us. We spend more moments capturing memories, than we spend creating them. We are inventors of many creative trends. The dictionary has been enriched by many shorter words during this age. We always seem to know a way around. If not, we find it. but we never ever loose time. Because "Time is money and money is...."

The old tradition of professional taboo of being only an engineer or a doctor has been broken long back by our generation. Now, we do what we want to do. And people earn a lot by just following their passion. We have so many new professions with so delicious names! Environmentalist! Creative media designer! Social media analyst! Photo journalist! Travel enthusiast! Food blogger! How sexy is that! Some of these professions and posts used to be present in the past also, but how many of us have heard about those? Rarely any one would take that step out of the well. Just imagine doing every day what you absolutely love to do and getting paid for that! Can it be any more awesome?? We are this. Some of us are, at least! Others could not be rebel enough to achieve their passion as their professions.

The first instinct of this generation is to bend all rules if not break them. Rules are something which we basically hate. Just use the words “not" and “allowed” consecutively in the same sentence, you are in for a big brawl, my friend. It may not be right. But we still fight. Rules are like the glass windows of our college classrooms, meant to be broken. If not so, then they are bound to be bent. We bend and we blend in. This analytic species knows well to stand out, but when needed, they also know how to crowd in. It would be a mass doing. We not only go left, we influence others as well. My world, my rules is the motto of every individual of this era.

We may not be always right, but we will somehow prove ourselves right. This is who we are. A crazy generation which has the potential to move mountains and reach Pluto, we rock! A few flaws, a few wayward goings but we are definitely something to smile about. I just wonder how crazy will the next set of youth be!

Seriously guys, what’s the matter with us? There must be something ridiculous in our wiring itself! Whatever screw might be loose or tight, I am super proud to belong to this awesomely insane era, aren’t you??