Mind The Gap...

 

Mostly all of us master the art of glorifying the Past and dragging it into the present.” Good old days”, “When I was young”, we did this”, we did that” are the terms we normally use especially when in conversation with the generation before us. We feel we are above them not only in age factor but have also experienced life a little more than them. A very good and rich past.

       All of us feel our past was eloquent, peaceful, had rich culture and whatever rules and traditions laid down by our ancestors were the finest. I feel we are pushing ourselves into the past instead of striding into the future. Many of the self-proclaimed gurus consider themselves the preserver of the past traditions and culture. If we happen to go against the rules laid by them we are not sanskari according to them.

       Old is Gold. If we restrict our youth to stick to the line we have drawn for them then in a way we are declining them to let spread their wings and explore the unknown world.

 

        When we sit with our older generation we hear them talk about their past nostalgically. I wonder if they would want to go back to the days of typhoid, plague, sati, infant deaths, famine, caste wars and insanitary conditions. I am sure they would not want to relive all these miseries. In fact I feel they are happier living in the luxury of air conditioners, heart bypass surgery, safe and fast air travel, and a hundred other good things that the modern world is offering them. The past has its own place and charm. We can delve into the past and find solutions for many challenges from the words of wise and experienced people who can inspire and lead us but at the same time we should be able to differentiate between the good and the bad, between the useless and the useful. We should harvest the golden things and words from the past.

 However there are still certain ideologies of the Generation before us that perplex me. Religion. What is Religion?

As per the little knowledge that I have acquired of the various Religions that exist, all of them definitely have a verse that mentions love and care to other homo sapiens. Ironically this doesn’t seem the case in the contemporary world. For instance the 1947 Historical India- Pakistan Partition lingers on the minds of a majority of Indians and Pakistanis who have either witnessed the episode or have heard tales from their ancestors. The bitterness still remains intact and unfortunately is being passed on to generations and generations. Let bygones be bygones. The generation I belong to does not encourage hatred based on factors like Religion and Nationality but unfortunately no matter how hard we try to suppress the hatred that our adults have, it’s a task to accomplish. And if at all you fall in love with someone from a different Religion and Nationality, you’ve called for trouble. The terms and conditions are in surplus if you want to fall in love.

Falling in love with a good human is just not enough even if it means marrying a person from the same religion and nationality in spite of the many flaws that he/she possesses. As a person how do you deal with the situation you are placed in when you know marrying somebody who you don’t connect with can put your life in a soup. Compromising and sacrificing are two options which when adopted can lead to a life that will make your family happy but leave you shattered. I contemplate on how everyone specially parents after living glorious years of content life, now expose harsh hypocritical decisions on their children. They are meant to support and not distance their offspring making them live a life of sheer unhappiness.

If there was any way we could explain to the adults the importance of having a good human being in life not based on factors like Religion and Nationality then that would be the ultimate goal achieved and then our Generation could let bygones be bygones in real terms.