One of my female colleagues was working in
the office till late evening. By the time she left, it was almost 10’o clock.
“Should I drop you home?” I asked. “Come-on, which age are you living in? We
stay in a big city and roads are sufficiently crowded even at nights” she
replied. After reaching home she sent me a text message after which, I heaved a
sigh of relief.
In our day to day lives we encounter this
question very often, which era are we living in? Sometimes we ask this question
to others while sometimes we are at the receiving end. In the technologically
advanced world, when we meet some people who don’t use mobile phones or don’t
know to use computers even today (I exclude aged people from this) then we
can’t help but say to ourselves (or if they are close to us, then to them
directly) - which age is he/ she living in?
Once this question arose in a different but
interesting context. Some of our friends were going to Mahabaleshwar for a picnic.
I suggested that they carry warm clothes as Mahabaleshwar is a hill station.
They started laughing and said, “which era are you living in? Due to global
warming, Mahabaleshwar is no longer as cold as it used to be.”
Many things have changed with time. Many
people now make use of faster modes of transport like airplanes and save their
time instead of spending days in travelling. Business travels have drastically
reduced with the advent of video conferencing facilities which allows you to
chat or discuss sitting in a corner of your office or home, with someone in the
other part of the world. The same applies to letters and mails also. Official
letters are sent only as a matter of compliance with legal or regulatory requirements
and most communications take place on emails, whatsapp, skype or similar other
means.
Even procedures of our Government have also
changed. You can give birth to a new company in India by filling some forms
online and you are done; it’s that simple. With technological advancements,
behavior of common people has also changed. Most educated people now book their
train tickets online on IRCTC web site, e-check in and book their seat before
actually reporting at the airport. Given this background, when I see long
queues still forming before ticket windows to book train reservations, I feel
like asking them, “which era are you living in?”
Not everything has changed with time. We
live in the second decade of 21st century, but still we have people living in
poverty, illiteracy. We still have farmers languishing in perennial debts and
committing suicides one after the other. We still have politicians and government
officials deeply rooted in corruption and eating away major chunk of piece
meant for welfare of common people. Which era are we living in?
We still have people spitting on roads,
breaking signals and other traffic rules which is a mentality typical of a
small town. Now these small towns have grown into large metropolitans. Despite
this, the attitude has not changed.
On one hand we talk about making our
country a super power and on other hand, our share in the world trade is not
even 5%, which is the same as what was 25 years ago. We still have caste system
where so called upper caste people continue oppressing those in backward
classes and people asking for reservations in colleges and government jobs on
the basis of castes. We still have people longing for a male child to such an
extent that some of them kill a girl child in the womb of her mother before
even being born. Which era are we living in? Can we become a powerful nation
with such a regressive mindset?
Whatever technological developments took
place in last 15 - 20 years, how much of this was invented by Indian scientists
or patented by Indian companies? We still remain content in being the second
level recipient of the technological upgrades from western countries. As long
as we use digital technology to forward religious messages to ten other people,
we do not have any future as a nation, irrespective of whichever era we live
in.
With the changing times accompanied by
digital revolution that brought financial well being among certain classes of
our country, change in behavioral pattern is quite apparent. Value system that
was in vogue for generations together has been challenged. A hang-out with
friends is considered cool but a family get-together is considered nonsense and
waste of time. Joint families are increasingly becoming a thing of past and
pre-marital relations are not strictly objected to (this is still on
exceptional basis, but has such an increasing trend that it may soon become a
norm). Instances of breaking of marriages are on a disproportionate rise. When
one talks about these things in a cautious tone, he is termed a backward and
has to face the question, “which era are you living in?”
We have evolved as a society over certain
thousands of years of time. This evolution involved two things - changing with
the changes in time and circumstances, which is necessary for survival of any
living being and retaining our essential basic values despite all these
changes. The later part is applicable to human beings. Retaining the basic values
gives any community its identity and a spirit to fight for those values on
which their identity is based.
It can be a matter of debate as to which
parts of our life should be changed with time and which should be regarded as
basic values for retention, but total denial of existence of any basic values
and trying to change everything with time will wipe out our identity as a
culture and mind well, if we disregard our own culture, other civilizations in
the world which are wise enough not to give up their identity, will never
accept us as a part of their civilizations. As a consequence, this denial of
basic values will reduce us to thinking animals from human beings.
Comments
Post a Comment