It's the 21st century and people (especially our generation) are expected to be very straight-forward, independent and of course open-minded. This also leads the generation of our parents to accept the same. But I'll come back to that later.
Since I was born and brought up in the 20th century, I had my cute little paws in the old customs and traditions of my family. I learnt to sing from my grandmother, heard thrilling Gujarati stories from my grandfather, prayed to God with my brother and went to exciting Gujarati plays with my family.
And then BOOM! came in the 21st century, and got with it, this nicely wrapped, bedazzled bright present [pun intended]. But as and when I started opening the present, it unfolded something new at every step.
Of course I've been very flexible to any changes that came my way. I mean there was no other option. So if you know me well, you'll also know that I'm damn straight-forward, extremely independent (oh, yeah!) and definitely open-minded.
But it's again that time of the year when you feel you're getting closer to the end. [yes, I can be dramatic about birthdays too!] So this thought crosses my mind. I was supposed to be the one who bridged the gap between the generations. I did everything I was expected to. I am my grandfather's favourite, my mom and I are best friends, my brother considers me the closest friend, and my friends think I'm pretty cool. [well, that's a given.]
But what I'm worried about now is that will the same thing happen to the next generation? I know I'm thinking ahead of my time. But remember how I told you our parents/grandparents are supposed to accept the new generations and their traits? Well, mine do. My parents are actually pretty cool. They know my secrets, my flaws, my weaknesses and my way of life. they've always been very encouraging and supportive of whatever I did. Hell, even my friends are sometimes jealous of my parents and their open-mindedness.
But a very strange thing happened the other day when my mother called me up and asked me to make a bio-data of myself so they can send it out for marriage proposals! SHOCKER! Isn't it? Well normally, if something like that came up [which is definitely very rare], I would get freaked out at the very thought of it. Not that I wasn't taken aback this time as well, but it simply made me think: this is it. The time is here. My part is over. My part as belonging to the youngest generation is over. So, as a responsible future second generation, it's all upto me to take my kids to Gujju plays, or even teach them proper Gujju for starters. How am I supposed to do it all by myself? Infact, sometimes I feel I'm de-learning Gujarati as a language or even as a religion. [As if you din't notice how I went from 'Gujarati' to 'Gujju'].
So the bottom line being, I suddenly realized that it's just a crazy cycle. Where from the day you're born, people tell you to grow wings and dream of flying high one day, when you grow up. But infact, when you do actually grow up, you're supposed to cut off those wings [that is, if you'd managed to grow them at all] and come right back to the ground. But that won't stop us from telling our kids to dream big and fly high, will it? That's just how it works. Like I said, a crazy cycle!
