If you want to understand how to become better allies to people with disabilities, then join us at Embracing All Abilities: Including People with Disabilities at Work.
We are the first generation that listens to their children and the last that has obeyed their parents
This post is dedicated especially to those who were born between 1970 and 1990.
So often have I come across silly posts (I’m sorry if I offended someone, but can’t help but express my views on this as I fall in the category too and thus have earned a right to comment on it 🙂 ) that keep talking about the generation and its uniqueness. They say that we are the first generation that listens to their children and the last that has obeyed their parents. I’m sure many of you agree with me that this specific trait shouldn’t be used as a qualification to call ourselves ‘unique’ or ‘The Limited Edition’ as I feel that there are too many loopholes in this trait which prove us to be a hopeless generation than a ‘PROUD’ Limited Edition.
Then there are some who boast that we are the last generation that will talk about Amar Chitra Katha, Tom and Jerry Star Trek, Famous Five, Rangoli and Chitrahaar. We are the last generation that can boast about offering a seat to the elders when sitting in a group, to find it cool to be a teetotaller among alcoholic friends, to know about the world even without the help of GOOGLE, the last to read, the last to drink tap water, the last to find cycling to school trendy and so on. Well, when we talk of such things do we feel proud or are we merely trying to hide our embarrassment and posing as proud?
Well, I think that, had we been proud of the things that we boast of, we should have followed them proudly rather than trying to adapt ourselves to the so-called ‘Cool world’ around us. We should have handed it over to our children and made them feel interested in it rather than feeling helpless while they laughed it off and reviled it right under our noses.
How many of us have handed down our roots to the next generation? Do our children believe in touching the feet of their elders, do they believe in playing outside rather than on their i-phones and tabs? Did we teach them the folk songs that were handed over to us by our previous generation? Did we teach them to read? Did we tell them about the role of a teacher/guru in our lives? Did we tell them that there are some things that money can’t buy?
We had received a beautiful and green world by our forefathers but we invented plastic and used it to an extent where our children are paying for it with their health. We invented the Computer and the Internet and made it such an indispensable part of our lives that we have become the servants of the inventions we had invented to assist/facilitate us. Our children believe more in Facebook and Watts-app friends than in making real friends who would stand with them through thick and thin. Our children are not watching hours of television because they don’t have anything else to do but because we haven’t exposed them to the wonders of reading as our parents and teachers had done. They don’t respect their elders because in the fight to become their best friends we have forgotten our roles as parents. We resent the fact that our children do not remember the line that they must not cross while they are talking to us. They backchat, they argue, they talk in a vulgar way but it all boils down to the same thing. We haven’t given them the values that we expect them to know/possess/exhibit.
Where did we go wrong? Well, it has been a slow process of negligence. We missed having a few things when we were young and when we had our own children we wanted them to get everything that we had missed. Now while giving them everything that we had missed we forgot to give them what we received. We were enjoying our lives and running from pillar to post to achieve all material things for our children instead of giving them what we should give them in abundance- out time, our undivided attention and our trust. when I say time, I don’t mean that we must deprive them of their ‘Alone Time’. Our undivided attention doesn’t mean that we facilitate them to a point of paralysing them and our trust doesn’t mean that we have unrealistic expectations from them. Knowing the individual we are bringing up is very important.
We’ve lost Chitrahaar, Rangoli, Ustad Bismillah Khan and his Shehnai to the vulgar tunes of ‘Zara Zara kiss me kiss me’ and ‘Beedi jalai le jigar se piya’ because we have marketed them more at the cost of the other. The balance that we need to create is in our hands.
The responsibility is ours to keep what we have and add to it rather than lose it to something worthless and useless. Putting a check on excesses is also our responsibility.
So, next time, instead of cribbing for the lost times or the endangered generation (lol) we must create an environment where even our children get things that they can be proud of. And the best thing that we can give them is our TIME, in the real sense.
Image via Pixabay
read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
What I loved was how there is so much in the movie of the SRK we have known, and also a totally new star. The gestures, the smile, the wit and the charisma are all too familiar, but you also witness a rawness, an edginess.
When a movie that got the entire nation in a twist – for the right and wrong reasons – hits the theatres, there is bound to be noise. From ‘I am going to watch it – first day first show’ to ‘Boycott the movie and make it a flop’, social media has been a furore of posts.
Let me get one thing straight here – I did not watch Pathaan to make a statement or to simply rebel as people would put it. I went to watch it for the sheer pleasure of witnessing my favourite superstar in all his glory being what he is best at being – his magnificent self. Because when it comes to screen presence, he burns it, melts it and then resurrects it as well like no other. Because when it comes to style and passion, he owns it like a boss. Because SRK is, in a way, my last connecting point to the girl that I once was. Though I have evolved into so many more things over the years, I don’t think I am ready to let go of that girl fully yet.
There is no elephant in the room really here because it’s a fact that Bollywood has a lot of cleaning up to do. Calling out on all the problematic aspects of the industry is important and in doing that, maintaining objectivity is also equally imperative. I went for Pathaan for entertainment and got more than I had hoped for. It is a clever, slick, witty, brilliantly packaged action movie that delivers what it promises to. Logic definitely goes flying out of the window at times and some scenes will make you go ‘kuch bhi’ , but the screenplay clearly reminds you that you knew all along what you were in for. The action sequences are lavish and someone like me who is not exactly a fan of this genre was also mind blown.
Recent footage of her coming out of an airport had comments preaching karma and its cruel ways, that Samantha "deserved her illness" because she filed for divorce.
Samantha Ruth Prabhu fell from being the public’s sweetheart to a villain overnight because she filed for divorce. The actress was struck with myositis post divorce, much to the joy of certain groups (read sexist) in our society.
A troll responded to Samantha’s tweet, “Women Rising!!” by adding to it “just to fall”. She replied, “Getting back up makes it all the more sweeter, my friend.”
Here’s another insensitive tweet by BuzZ Basket showing fake concern for her autoimmune disease. “Feeling sad for Samantha, she lost all her charm and glow. When everyone thought she came out of divorce strongly and her professional life was seeing heights, myositis hit her badly, making her weak again.” Samantha responded, “I pray you never have to go through months of treatment and medication like I did. And here’s some love from me to add to your glow.”
Please enter your email address