It all started when my
brother made an exclamation remark while travelling in the car with my mother
and me- “Oh Fish!” Surprised as I was to hear my little brother talking like
that (he’s not that little), I kept my mouth shut owing to my mother’s
presence.
The next morning over
breakfast, somehow the conversation turned to the kind of language that people
use these days. Mom and dad had a lot to say about it. (It’s going to sound
familiar)
1.
The language you people
use is disgusting.
2.
Really? If you don’t
find it disgusting, then maybe you should exclaim “Oh Shit” next time in Hindi.
3.
You think using such
language is a way of standing out.
4.
You think using such
language, you can easily fit in with the rest of the people who use such language.
(Yes, she actually made both these statements with a short gap)
5.
I think the way your
language is progressing, it’s just going to get worse with time.
6.
You shouldn’t try
fitting into the herd mentality.
7.
I’m not saying it to
you, I’m talking about the entire generation.
And of course, no
conversation with any parent can ever stay bound to one topic no matter what
the origination may have been. (Not a part of the above conversation, but
something I think all of us face on an everyday basis.)
8. You people think you
are invincible.
9. Why do you drive that
way? Do you think driving that fast is cool?
10. Why do you
want to start a company or get into social work? Why don’t you just get a
regular job like other people? (I read this as herd)
11. I don’t understand
your generation. You guys (oops! my mistake! You people... most parents would
ever use "guys") have an attitude problem!
12. Let me talk to
so-and-so uncle and get you a job.
13. Why don’t you
want me to get you a job? Why are you so against getting help from your own
parents? (The reality is, they became self sustained paying their own tuitions
and books etc in their first year of college).
14. Oho! Bohot
bade/badi ho gayi ho na? Sab kuchh aata hai tumhe ab to?
15. Tumhe zyada
pata hai?
16. Ye baal aise
hi safed nahi kiye hain humne!
17. Pachaas saal
ki duniya dekhi hai, tumse zyada jaante hain. (No offence, even though they may
have been working in the same office, at the same position for 40 years now.)
18. Etc etc etc…..
(Feel free to add more commonly heard statements in the comments)
The point is, life has
changed a lot in the past 25-30 years since they were 20-22 year olds. Options
have increased. Opportunities have increased. Job availabilities have
decreased. And believe it or not mom and dad and uncle and aunt and grandfather
and grandmother and the whole wide spectrum of family and friends of family who
are always ready to molly-coddle and worry about us to death, we are actually
capable of taking care of ourselves!
We took care of
ourselves when we were being bullied in school. We took care of ourselves all
day long when we were alone at home and everyone was off to work. We took care
of ourselves when we had to travel all around the city for the hundred thousand
tuitions that we had to take for the gamble of getting into a good college. We
took care of ourselves for 3/4/5/6 years in the hostel. Yeah, okay we may have
gotten a few bad habits, and some of us got a tattoo and a couple of unconventional
piercings, and maybe we didn’t bathe for a couple of weeks sometimes and maybe
the room was in a complete mess 24x7 (except for the times when you came to
visit, when it took 5 minutes and everybody cleaned up your room and theirs),
but hey, we got out great! At our age, you guys were raising us, but you don’t
trust us enough to raise ourselves?
By the way, the internet
that your keep cribbing about (that we never go offline and are hooked to our
laptops and phones and our lives are meant to be doomed), that’s the reason why
we’re still surviving. There’s a reason why the world is as advanced as it is
today. It’s because everybody actually does know everything. And if we have to
be in the race, we got to know everything too. That’s why we NEED Google! (If
we weren’t online all the time, maybe in that case you could actually have
worried about whether we could take care of ourselves.) Yes we're constantly
texting, and we use more acronyms than actual words. (fyi, TRAI has made life
living hell for us) And we stay online on facebook, gtalk and twitter all the
time. (By the way, that's how we remind you of your friend's birthdays so you
can wish them). That's how we know where everyone is and what everyone is
doing. (You're the one who keeps complaining that you've lost touch with your
school friends and that you have no idea where they are! Zuckerberg gave us an
awesome opportunity so that we dont make the same mistake.)
The fact of the matter
is that we are actually quite capable now. We’re all 21+ lads and ladies. Let
us make our own careers. Let us make our own decisions. Trust us. Believe it or
not, we have grown up. And you have to stop looking at us like a bunch of 12
year olds even if behave like that. (If we don’t drown enough chips and fizzy
drinks at this age, we sure as hell won’t be able to do it at 50!)
We may goof up a couple
of times, but give us a chance, and we’ll do well. It’s because you raised us
just fine. And we love you for that!
