The Partial Opening of the Present and the Partial Closing of the Past Modes of living

My mind is in a swirl. I had always prided myself of not feeling my age though slow physical decline prompts me to accept the truth that I have crossed 75. I resist acknowledging the fact that I belong to the past and do not belong to the current X/Y/Z/ generations. I was born into World War II generation- the generation of ‘Baby Boomers’ that enjoyed the fruits of a slow economic recovery after the hardships of the war time. I should say that we who arrived at that time in India have seen a rise in our economic status thanks to education and our post-independence development.  In my case the rise was from average middle class to upper middle class with reasonable luxuries and comforts that followed the ascension to a higher status.

As I moved to my late twenties and thirties, I found myself in a state of dissonance with Gen X - born between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s, characterized by greater openness to diversity and a streak of rebelliousness against the staid and the orderly way of living that we had been used to. The new generation was that of the flower children rejecting the established culture and advocating extreme liberalism in politics, lifestyle and arts. Though there was a veiled admiration for the new generation’s spirit of freedom, it left a strange sense of disquietude among us, brought up to unquestioningly accept paternalism that among other things  had denied us the liberty of choice.

Generation Y known as the Millennial generation refers to those born between the 1980s and 2000, coinciding  with revolution in technology and  surrounding itself with  gadgets such as   cell phones, laptops, I-pads and I-phones, always seeking connectivity with the world outside. This generation looked down on us- the Baby boomers generation who knew only work culture and never had learnt to enjoy life other than work. We in turn, though critical of the new work culture made easy by technological appliances, secretly admired the swift moving Millennials to forge a new work-life balance and despaired over our lack of technological skills to keep pace with them.

Today, the Baby boomers are just a little less than a quarter of a century from turning hundred. Thanks to modern medicines and qualitative changes in life style, we do not look like zombies with “dry brains” in the “dry season” of our age. We are now the great grand-  parents of Gen Z, the children of Gen X and Gen Y. Gen Z youngsters are in their teens though they are  highly connected, effortlessly using high-tech communication, living a technology- driven lifestyle and  depending hugely on social media for interaction with the world  that provides a built-in shield to protect  them from any degree of intimacy and closeness while nurturing  illusory connectedness. We marvel at their dexterity in the usage of “apps”. Their new lingo, shorn off grammar and proper expression and characterized by abbreviated spellings is different from our familiarity with our grammatically and idiomatically formulated  language, full of politeness and courtesy, signifying correctness in behaviour and conduct.

I have now understood the term ‘generation gap’. Even if I still have mental astuteness, I find it difficult to attune to the gadget culture around me. Though gadgets are meant to save time and energy, I wonder what is to be done with the extra time and energy on hand?  Is the new generation with the surplus saved energy stronger and healthier than we the Baby Boomers? Does the additional time on hand make them more productive than the previous generations?  On the contrary we, the old staid characters were able to compete our work and return home almost in fixed hours while the new age office goers keep late hours , missing their family life with wife and children, missing on some little fun in the evenings, missing on home meals, grabbing a rich burger to bite to soften the hunger pangs and a fizzy cola to wash it down and returning home straight to bed. By the time they are in their forties, they have blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and other ailments which demand a full chest of medicines for daily consumption. Since there is no time to do any physical work, they have to hit the gym during weekends and labour to stave off those extra kilos piled during the course of the week.

In the past, shopping even in the kirana store was one way of stretching one’s legs. The daily needs of bread and butter, milk and coffee/tea, cereals for breakfast and fruits were purchased from the morning stores. The fact is one walked to the stores. Today we have the Apps that lists out all that we need( and even more than what we need) and sitting at home or lying in the bed holding the smartphone we seek greater and swifter mobility through the Apps. Even that short walk to the corner store is no longer there. The automobile mobility is available to preserve our energy expended on physical walking. All the time, there is the racing of the heartbeat and pulse rate as we have to beat the traffic to reach the workplace and beat even the Sun before it punches its rays through the grey skies. No time for cooking, no time for washing, no time for cleaning,  no time for breakfast. All these daily chores- often termed as drudgeries can wait for the weekend when the machines will do the work. Till such time, stuff all the dirty clothes in a corner of the cupboard and let the house take care of itself. Every young / middle-aged man and woman suffers from frozen arms/ shoulders, from pain in the knee joints, from migraine induced by stress and from spondylitis through bending over the computers. The result is frequent motor drives to the orthopedic specialist, for knee transplants, for physiotherapy, for Xrays and CTscans- all because of a total surrender to the gadgets and not using our naturally endowed arms and legs.

I was amused the other day when I saw a friend of mine seeking the I-pad to get directions to reach a shopping mall from her residence. Gone are the days when people like me would mentally map the roads to be taken before starting the car. So is the use of the mobile phone. I had trained my mind to be a phone directory to store important numbers of more than a hundred people. Now the mobile phone has undone the mental capability to remember. Though I make it a point to dial the numbers rather than pressing the contact button on the phone to do my bidding, I find that the intrusion of cell memory has wreaked havoc on my grey cells. The vacuum cleaners are still a boon as they require our physical effort to clean and mop the floors. But today one hears about the robot doing it, literally nibbling like a mouse at all the dirt present and imagined. Even guiding a vacuum cleaner is no longer a physical activity.

What a paradox! The proud cry “I have no time” contradicts all the spare time that gadgets have freed for you  and the moot question is what do you do with the spare time- spend more hours in the office ? The modern generation follows Parkinson’s Law: “work expands to fill the time available for its completion”.  So there is the illusion of timeless working! At least in US and in the West, people return home at the appointed time. No late working , no sacrifice of family and children during the weekends for the sake of office. But in India, there is no time for home, for fun and play, but inversely expand all the available time to fill it with office work.

Isn’t it time to wean the Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Z from the monstrous clutches of gadgets and becoming a slave to them? Isn’t it time for all these younger groups to use the gadgets minimally and wisely and be the Lord and Master over them? Aren’t the gadgets defrauding them of their physical and mental potential?  Can we  turn the clock to our age civilization and  make them understand that there is a time for work there is a time for rest; there is a time for others, there is a time for oneself; there is a time for professional work; there is a time for personal work; there is a time for colleagues; there is a time for family…(apologies to the Ecclesiastes)

We the Baby Boomers are open to the new age civilization of gadgets but with moderation. We appeal to the new age generation to be open to our old age civilization with adequate modification. The future lies in the partial closing of the present and the partial opening of the past modes of living.