The Buddha says that one of the four truths is that everything is changing. Change is the only constant force in the universe, which can neither be stopped nor be avoided. The only way to sustain life is to change along with the changing times and the ones who don’t, perish. This is the very nature of the Indian demographic. The last one-decade has seen a formidable change in every aspect of individual as well as national life and this just seems to be the beginning.
From being known as nothing more than one of the most populated country, we have come to a point where even America says we are a very important part of their international policy and that they look forward to our corporation. The thinking, the lifestyles, the goals, the ideologies, the geographic make up, the economic standards, the value propositions, the science, the music, the movies, the man and the woman all are changing at a brisk rate. We are increasingly becoming more and more volatile in the way we live and things we want from life. And this is why I would say that ‘Change’ is what represents India to me, in the present scenario.
We are no more the people who reclined every evening in the drawing room watching television with the family to end the day, every single day. We are no more the families where the man was the one who came back in the evening from work. We are no more the unsatisfied and quiet consumers who had no choice and grunted our teeth if we didn’t like any product. We are no more the education system where marks and scores mattered more than intelligence and the options were restricted to only science, being the most valued and commerce being for the average. Arts was a felony and Fine Arts unheard of.
The days no more end at 10 o’clock in the night, outings are no more restricted to going to your relatives place, or for a once in a blue moon picnic. Girls are no more like a distant dream for guys and guys are always available for girls. There are more people to talk to, there are more things you can think about, there are more places, within and outside of India that have opened up for us. The airplane is no more a mystery, the phones have become a toy of a two year old, the computers are a part of our biological system so much so that we don’t excrete, we delete data from our stomach these days. Call it technological intervention or progress, we have come a long way and things have changed in a manner that was beyond imagination only till a decade back.
India has the largest youth population in the world and they, without any doubt, are going to build the future of the nation. Here too ‘change’ is at the centre of their existence. Its being called the ‘impatient generation’ that wants everything quickly. Its no more the bunch of young energetic people seen lost in the dreams of filmy, romantic college life. But its more to do with the fast pace running around in the pursuit of a better career. School kids have access to all those things that were once upon a time virtues of collegians.
The priorities have changed from neighborhood friends to online friends, from sports to video games, from face to face to facebook. Kids now know middle finger and a number of porn sites. Live-in relations and pre-marital sex have become legal, a concept or a word that would have got you locked in the bathroom by your dad few years ago. Marriages are no more on the agenda and even if they are people hardly bother which ‘gotra’ the girl is from, the region, the religion, the ‘kundli’ and all the so-called deciding factors are being shunned away by the modern minds. The Individual is what would matter at the end of the day. Of course there are contradicting views and raised eye-brows, but these are just small hitches in front of a wave that are soon going to get swept away.
The geographical boundaries are collapsing, slowly but surely. More and more displaced Indians are there to be seen any and everywhere. Some even have difficulty pointing out where they belong, they prefer calling them the ‘Ideal Indians.’ Australians, British, South Africans, West-Indians are playing for India. Bill Gates is doing charity for Bihar. Obama is looking forward to Indian corporation. Vietnamese are studying the Indian BRTS system.
And the list just gets bigger…
• Finally there are sports other than cricket in India.
• Railway is making profit.
• We have Young Politicians.
• Ministers are taking in stricter measures in curbing the violence in Maoist hit areas.
• Courts are giving verdicts in less than 25 year per case.
• Mein Kampf sells more than The Story of My Experiments With Truth
• Gandhi is cursed as he made one entire state a dry state, no offence.
• Movies have replaced Ishq with LSD
• People now hate love stories
• Luxury is cheaply available
• International is no more out of reach, its almost domestic now
• Bata is as good as Nike
• Ferraris, Lamborghini, Ducati and all the other names are not just names anymore
From the time I come to the college in the morning till the time I go back in the evening, something changes on the way. There is something new to be seen every time I re-visit a place. Whether it’s a newly constructed building or a deforested land, the change is everywhere.
I am not judging here or passing a verdict as to where we are going is good or bad. There are views from the conservatives that we are going to the dogs. The people who are changing with the world say it’s the only way and there is no problem with that. I don’t know which point of view is right or wrong, but I see India and I see it changing rapidly. There is a drastic shift from where we were few years back to where we have reached now.
Not just the national level, but also the individual level has seen a considerable change in every aspect of life. Be it the carefree nature of the youth or the acceptance of the elderly. Be it the disposable salaries or the need to do something more than just earning for self. The nature, the attitude, the minds, the hearts, there is change outside and there it is within.
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