The sensible generation

I happened to go to this milk booth a couple of weeks back to pick up my dad. There was this long line of people waiting to buy their milk card. Almost all of them in this line were men beyond the age of 50. There were hardly any women or younger people. I know for a fact that this happens in my home. My dad who is 72 now runs all the errands for our home. My mom hardly ever steps out of the house to buy anything on a daily basis. She comes out to shop only with my dad or me or my sister. The daily errands like buying milk, vegetables, buying the odd groceries, milk card, paying the telephone and electricity bills, buying ration is all done by dad. Not that my mom does not know to do it all, but it is just the way it has been. Before my dad retired my mom used to do most of these things but then once he retired, he took charge of all odd jobs at home. This is the case for most of the retired men I saw at the milk booth. While the women folk (the older ones) manage their homes, most of the retired men take charge of the things to be done outside home. That is how they get to spend their time. All these years I have never seen my dad sit still in a place continuously for an hour, except of course when he is watching an action packed masala movie (Oh he loves watching movies, especially that of Thalaivar). That is how he has been made. Most men/women of that generation do not know how to be idle. My mom, though she complains immensely of all the muscle and bone aches in her body, cannot spend a day simply lounging. They have to do something useful to spend their time. That is how they envision it. My two granny's (one 92 and the other 87), till this day runs their houses. They are just creaking bundle of bones, but no one can do any job better than them even by a mile. They are so much capable and are still standing on their own limbs at this age simply because they kept on running and running. 

People in my generation have become more of couch potatoes and workaholics. My dad's generation worked too. Worked more smarter than harder since they were all intelligent folks, with intelligence that did not stem out of books but intelligence that stemmed out of experience and abundant willingness to learn more and more. My generation and the generation younger to me are more willing to spend time at the computer than at the local market. We love playing xbox games, online games, update statuses online the entire range of social networking sites and simply like to spend time indoors or on a trip over the weekends. I wonder how many of my generation people know from where the milk in their home comes from. We are not resilient, we are more prone to diseases and the only form of physical labor we know is spending time at the gym. While I am sitting here and typing this, my dad is actively involved in organizing "Anna Dhaanam" with his friends at the local temple and my mom is taking care of the chores at home. 

It is not just the resilience that we have lost as a community but also the culture and enthusiasm that the older generation seem to have in abundance even today. Our generation seem more interested in blogging and tweeting and net surfing and virtual combat and the multiplexes more than any form of cultural events. I saw very few youngsters at the temple today (I am one of them as I don't participate in such events every year). What struck me most is how much of cultural affinity we have lost. There is no spark in life than making pots and pots of money and buying the latest gadgets. There is no life actually outside the office where we seem to come at odd hours and simply eat and sleep or surf. At the rate we are living our lives I think that the world will really end soon since the average life expectancy is becoming shorter and shorter given the way we live our lives. I really and wholeheartedly  yearn for the days before the internet and mobile phones. We seemed to have more time on our hands and were willing to spend them more constructively than watching TV or browsing. When is this crazy existence gonna cease? When can we compare ourselves worthily with our parents and grand parents? When will I ever cease to wish and start to act?