So, here is it folks. I'm going to make a very important official declaration, that i'm not too happy, but kind of arm-twisted to make - I'M GROWING OLD!
And, how do i know this? Strangely of late, the starting line of my conversation to the kids have been with that wretched, dreaded and nightmarish words, "In those days, we used to...". The very same line that I use to tease my father when he said it or politely yawn when my granny droned away for the nth time. The great circle of life, and now it's my turn already. Sigh, how time flies. But, we middle-aged Gen X's don't give up that easily, right? There's nothing much we can do about it except to over-analyze the whole thing and make a mess out of it. Let me roll up my sleeves and the pen here.
First, i'll start with the now 60 and 70'ers, which i'm going to call "Gen W". I had to make that up on my own because only in the West, they have a fancy name called "baby boomers" or the phase after World War II when reproduction was said to have been resumed, whereas in the East, our motto has always been to "baby boom" for centuries without taking a break. Wars can come and go as they please, we never stop for such petty things. Anyways, because I want this to be purely from an Indian persp. for obvious reasons, Gen W it'll have to be.
That ladies and gents, would involve a whole lot of yours and my parents' generation. Let's see. From loads of repeated hearsay evidence, the Gen W children mostly grew up in a farm-based household with plenty of free time to play. Only boys went to schools, where nothing happened anyways. The girls never went to schools or at best stopped around 4th or 5th grade. They had to be at home, learning to cook, clean, sew or whatever mundane jobs get thrown their way. Their high point of their life would be getting married, which usually happened around 17 or 18 years for girls and 25 or 26 or men. Yeah, girls and men, that's painfully the way it was.
Now, to the adult Gen W. Men would be toiling, usually in government offices through their lifetime. Retirement would be something they would look forward to and plan all their life. Clear division of work between the spouses. Men wouldn't even enter into household matters. Most women-folk would be at home taking care of babies or dealing with cranky in-laws. You would find them rarely in workplace and if so, it'll be mostly as teachers, nurses etc. or jobs which men didn't want to do and generously hand them down. Together, they would've made our pre-historic hunter-gatherers proud. Joint families, with all their dramatic highs and lows were a norm. This gen also had seen or heard about the freedom sruggle in the 40's when they were young.
In a peanut shell- These were hard-working men and women. This probably comes from the effects of Gen W's parents who were mostly agrarian and used to physical labor. Also, they've been children during the post-War times and used to controlled rations and live only on the basic necessities of life.
(more on Gen X later...)
And, how do i know this? Strangely of late, the starting line of my conversation to the kids have been with that wretched, dreaded and nightmarish words, "In those days, we used to...". The very same line that I use to tease my father when he said it or politely yawn when my granny droned away for the nth time. The great circle of life, and now it's my turn already. Sigh, how time flies. But, we middle-aged Gen X's don't give up that easily, right? There's nothing much we can do about it except to over-analyze the whole thing and make a mess out of it. Let me roll up my sleeves and the pen here.
First, i'll start with the now 60 and 70'ers, which i'm going to call "Gen W". I had to make that up on my own because only in the West, they have a fancy name called "baby boomers" or the phase after World War II when reproduction was said to have been resumed, whereas in the East, our motto has always been to "baby boom" for centuries without taking a break. Wars can come and go as they please, we never stop for such petty things. Anyways, because I want this to be purely from an Indian persp. for obvious reasons, Gen W it'll have to be.
That ladies and gents, would involve a whole lot of yours and my parents' generation. Let's see. From loads of repeated hearsay evidence, the Gen W children mostly grew up in a farm-based household with plenty of free time to play. Only boys went to schools, where nothing happened anyways. The girls never went to schools or at best stopped around 4th or 5th grade. They had to be at home, learning to cook, clean, sew or whatever mundane jobs get thrown their way. Their high point of their life would be getting married, which usually happened around 17 or 18 years for girls and 25 or 26 or men. Yeah, girls and men, that's painfully the way it was.
Now, to the adult Gen W. Men would be toiling, usually in government offices through their lifetime. Retirement would be something they would look forward to and plan all their life. Clear division of work between the spouses. Men wouldn't even enter into household matters. Most women-folk would be at home taking care of babies or dealing with cranky in-laws. You would find them rarely in workplace and if so, it'll be mostly as teachers, nurses etc. or jobs which men didn't want to do and generously hand them down. Together, they would've made our pre-historic hunter-gatherers proud. Joint families, with all their dramatic highs and lows were a norm. This gen also had seen or heard about the freedom sruggle in the 40's when they were young.
In a peanut shell- These were hard-working men and women. This probably comes from the effects of Gen W's parents who were mostly agrarian and used to physical labor. Also, they've been children during the post-War times and used to controlled rations and live only on the basic necessities of life.
(more on Gen X later...)