Me…Generation Gap…no way !!!! (Self Realisation)

I never felt I will face a generation gap. I am just 33 and technically too young to have first hand feeling of generation gap.
But as the mighty time would have its own way, the other day time brought me back to mother earth specially when I was thinking I am not more than 16 in spirits (I think every women thinks so !). My illusion that I am in tune with the changing times came shattering down.

It all began when the other day we were discussing on the HR activities we can do in office. (This 15 Aug we had downloaded some Patriotic videos from You tube and shown to the team on Projector followed by quiz on national history and issues.)
Coming back to our discussions, we started talking about the ” Films Division ki Bhent ” video of ‘Anekta main Ekta’. It begins with a young girl singing ‘hind desh ke niwasi‘ than a Little boy comes and asks…didi..didi.. yeh anek kya hai, didi tells him, suraj Ek, Chanda Ek, Taare Anek...than the story of Birds follow as to how they were caught in the net of the hunter (Vyaadh) and than collectively they flew with the net itself …..!!!!! and than didi tells “jugat lagani hogi’ to pluk the mangos from Mango tree…..

We were not discussing any spiritual topic, but still it bestowed immense peace and delight while we were talking about it. It was so nostalgic , so remniscent of my childhood days, rather not only mine but many others of similar age bracket who lived with Doordarshan and its serials like Spiderman (every sunday 5 pm), Malgudi days and swami, SIGMA, Neev, Chunauti, Trishna, Buniyaad, Hum Log, Ramayan,Mahabharat. ( Thoguh some of my personal favourites were Bharat Ek Khoj and Chandrakant Dwivedi’s Chanakya.)

Those were the times we used to be out of our homes till 7 o clock, playing i spy (chuppan chupayi) stapu, Chain, kho kho.…running around here and there, fighting, getting bruises, shouting, cheering, crying, laughing . But now with so many crimes against little kids, kids preferring playstation to physical play, shrinking play grounds…the things have really changed.

Oh I digressed from the topic again. When were discussing this video and were getting submurged n nostalgia, a new management joinee, who has joined us recently ( Just 22 years of age ) brought us back to reality. He is 1988 born, unable to feel the emotions we had attached to these times, quite ignorant of  the serials we were talking about… it came as a rude shocker when he mentioned serials of his time… Roadies.

Totally shaken and shattered I came back into realities of today and pondered that in 1991 satellite TV invaded India……  realising how it changed lives…from the innocense of Chunauti or Bharat Ek khoj, youngsters have moved to quite brash Roadies or Emotional Atyachaar (these were the serial he talked about).

Actually yes ! things have changed…. my nephew and niece ( and 6 yrs) watch hungama channel, plastic beauty Barbie, highly commercialised Hannah Montana or the highly mischivious shinchan affecting there minds.

These days my niece is worried that the forthcoming baby in the family ( her mother is on family way again) should not be a girl, because one of the cartoon character’s younger sister troubles him a lot…so sweet, such a serious concern she has to face !!!

Such is the impact of these cartoons that my sister feels grateful to these hindi cartoon channels , because of which her daughter is learning hindi. ( her daugther describes the weather to her mother in the most poetic way like Shinchan says ‘ Bahar Mausam kitna suhawana lag raha hai’ )

These kids or youngsters can hardly value what Chitrahaar meant to us….. or the feature film on sundays… or the caption ‘Rukawat ke liye khed hai (with cartoon of mouse chewing a cord)’.

Times have changed…… I love listening to old hindi songs because I grew up listening to Suraj ke sath sath or Aap ki farmaish on AIR Urdu service every morning year after year.  But now there are hardly any channel which shows the old hindi black and white songs. With coming of FM channels on Radio, one hardly tunes to vividh bharti….

Till date I rush to the Movie hall much before the movie starts just to watch the Vicco Turmeric ad ‘Bade Naazon se Pali hamari banno’. I proudly cherish and stand when they play the jana gana man in cinema hall…..

I never wanted to but had to realise that I am old enough now for the new genration….. Yes I was struck down by the generation gap that day…… I realised our times are over….my husband has adapted well from videogame to playstation 4, from Chunauti to F.R.I.E.N.D.S, but I am still in a limbo…still stuck with the same nostalgia….. and good news is I have found a channel which plays old Hindi songs!!!!!!