My First Expedition

I was a little girl in early 1990s, as most of the females are at some point in their life ... I was terrified of the dark. I couldn't walk past the veranda of my grandparent's house without being accompanied by an adult during night time. Clutching the big adult hand with my little hands, sometimes my nails dabbed with nail enamel if I was lucky enough to convince my Mum to let me try it. Darkness was dreadful to me in that era, so were Cats, darkness signified to me that some monster is lurking in it to get me. Well, err my prime concern was not just the villainous monsters but also the great God above.

I remember those religious/ mythological shows on telly that implied that God was watching every action from above the clouds and commenting about stuff to his female companion. They, God and his lady, were mostly teasing each other in their cloud living room with a gaudy furnishing and a serpent couch. On a second thought, I liked the furnishing and the dresses and the tiaras ... I remember not being able to understand the premise of the show or what was going on in the show. All I knew was that at some points God often formed stairs of clouds (well-decorated stairs with carpet!) and walked down the stairs stunned the mortal he was watching over and made him so happy and fortunate. Sometimes the cloud stair was replaced by smoke! And puff! Came the God guy or Goddess lady. Or seldom the lightning in the sky ... and God yelling at the corrupt mortal, from the clouds in a hologram form. So I was convinced that it was the casual way of  God's conversing with us mortals. Being a young mortal myself it terrified me.

I didn't want God to startle me with his ways I was just not ready for that kind of excitement. I often prayed to God "Please don't show up! Please don't show up!" ... I never told the grown-ups about my concern related to God showing up, but I asked them, how will they feel if God came to them. The Grown-ups often seemed indifferent and/or unconcern by the matter. Thus I never showed my weakness by telling them that it was scary to me. I was a big and strong girl! duh!

One person who wanted me to be unafraid of the dark was my Grandpa. Now, as an adult, I like darker and quieter time of the day the most. I often think about the time when he would help me practice facing my fears. On the windy and soothing nights of the 1990s, after we had dinner my grandpa use to take me to the veranda and tell me, patiently, how it was all the same as daytime. He would explain to me, our veranda was still the same the other end led to the little garden with flowers, where I played in evening. I image of that garden is still so fresh in my mind, the beautiful Hibiscus, Rangoon Creeper, Golden trumpet and some occasional roses and tiny white flowers with strong fragrance. There was a black and white Gate next to the garden. I swung on that gate every evening... My Grandpa eventually convinced me of the fact that it was all the same just with no light to help us see. After a few days of this routine of explaining, he asked me do I want to test it? After a little reluctance, I agreed and I was set on the biggest adventure of my life till that day. I was to go and touch the trunk of the Hibiscus tree, all by myself, in the dark of night. I did it and while I was running in the veranda towards the tree and back, all the while my grandpa's voice from the other side of the veranda was comforting me. "I am right here, it is all the same as it is in the evening..." I ran back to him after touching the tree and being assured that it was same in the dark only I couldn't see it. I swear I felt a little bit grown-up that day.

As for the telly shows on mythology were concerned, I was soon barred from watching them as I cried my heart out after watching an episode in witch, a woman drowned her newborn baby in a river. What Evil! I had a little baby sister and babies meant my little sister, whom I loved so much. Yup, I was one of those siblings who love their younger siblings and never feel a hint of jealousy towards the new member. I kid you not that is a rare thing and it is kind of a window to the future relationship of the siblings in question.

I didn't mind being barred from that Sunday Morning Doordarshan's mythological show, that was the best thing that happened to me! I was busy stealing milk powder and Bon-vita from the kitchen while adults were occupied with their "Main samay hun!" telly show!

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We The Millennials

I am a Millennial, and I wear it as a Badge. Being able to be proud on one's Millennial status quo is rather difficult. While media is bombarding us with claims of being the "Me-Me-Me-Generation". We are also named as the "Generation Y", the "Echo Boom" and of course the "Millennials".

Generations 101

Baby Boomers: people born between 1946 and 1961

GenerationX: People born between 1962 and 1981

Millennials: People born between the 1980 and early 2000s.

For more information on the generations click here 

The story of Millennials

I was born in the late 80s. The technology was budding not quite abundant in my part of the world. I had playmates during my early childhood. We played outside in evenings, we rode bicycles and climbed trees. We played indoors with "cool" stuff like Nintendo game boy and Super Mario on our (for now it is lousy, but we thought they were awesome) video game players. During the late 90s, we had desktop computers and our friends were all on the "yahoo instant messenger". You see it was promising we saw technology flourishing, changing to better and better.

  

We were told that the future is ours. We were supposed to be the golden generation of technology and power. Space age, Jetpacks, hoverboards ( A real one, that "hovers" not a wheeled one!) we were promised that it is going to be a bright future. All we have to do is study and be focused. We can be anything if we work hard. And we did! 

And then 9/11 happened ... wars, wars, wars. It is not that there were no wars before that. But 9/11 shaped the decay we become "adults". The phase that we waited for all our childhood and adolesce was affected by the Recession. The sluggish economy, unemployment, student loans and global warming that is our heritage. It is not what we were promised, It is about time we are disillusioned of the promised Golden Era.

Now when they (Gen X and Baby Bloomers) look at us they see the Entitled, Lazy, Ungrateful, Self-Obsessed, Drunk on Technology, Adult-Child ... Snapchatting each other while taking a dump. They compare us with themselves, patting their backs on their own success, as they entered the workforce with flourishing economy and booming technology. That allowed them to climb the ladders of sucess over time. Or perhaps they are envious of us for we are vigorously using the technology they developed, we can access shit-load of information with a pat on our phone screens.

We Millennials have  a bad reputation! let us break down the stereotypes 

We are Narcissistic

We are quite notorious for being "Narcissistic" and the  self-involved generation. So what is wrong in being involved in oneself? I don't find it should be intimidating to the world overall. Yes, we Snapchat every damn thing to out BFFs. Yes, we upload selfies with our lunch on Instagram. Does that make us suffering from narcissistic disorder( a medical condition)? That's a rather silly claim don't you think! We have access to social media we want to know what our friends are up to, we want to be connected. 

We are Lazy and Entitled

We were brainwashed to believe, we deserve and will get the best of the world if we work hard and dedicated towards goals, just like the preceding generations. Our "cheerleading parents" boosted our morals assuming the political and economic conditions will be same for us as it was for them. The irony is, that the capitalist greed made education a business and we burdened with the aspirations of education or debts of students loans. Competition is tight as the population of millennials is high. See we are not lazy we are under debt. we are not entitled, our college degrees were not as economical to earn as it was for previous generations. We worked our way through it and we are still pushing the boundaries. 

We are Not Family Oriented 

Yes, our relationships are often shaky. We are not ready to get married or "settle down" majorly because we do not have the "finances" to settle down unless we get married and move in with our parents. We cannot afford a housing that the previous generation could. We want to have a family but we are not equipped to have a house of our own and raise a child, yet. We don't want to be struggling with our uncertain jobs and a child to feed and educate. So we prefer to push the timeline and be mentally and financially ready before we get married and/or have a child. Unless we expect our parents to pay the bills, and be called "entitled".

The list of how we are the worst of humankind goes on and on but what the critics (who are majorly GenX and Baby Bloomers) need to consider is:

Cut us a slack, we are living through the sluggish economy and distorting global climate. None of those are the product of our conducts, Still we are facing problems. Criticizing us and blaming us is not a solution. 

Appreciate the Millennial Traits

We are Inclusive we believe in equal rights for all. We support LGBTQ+. We are compassionate and understanding. We are Liberals and Socialist (Feel The Bern). We are hopeful and working towards alternate energy forms to fix the climate. We do not segregate based on gender, sexual orientation, colour or cast. We push the boundaries and most importantly we want a sustainable development. We do not disregard the future generation in the wake of corporate greed and power.  

PS Millennials face a higher depression rate than previous generations. According to recent studies, 44 percent young adults experienced symptoms of depression, and suicide is one of the leading causes of death among youngsters. 

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Literature

I love to read, it brings me the pleasure and upliftment that I cannot express in words. To articulate it in the terms of literary work I would say:

“My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.”

~ John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

I like reading for many reasons and one of it is being "teleported" to another world and time. To read the written words of some men and women that I could never possibly have come across due to constraints of unidirectional time. I can never go back in time to have a conversation with Kurt Vonnegut or can I? Well, theoretically I can! But, since time travel is not a thing, yet. The constraint according to the current understanding of physics is,  I can only travel back to the time when the time machine would be invented and not before that... that's another topic for another blog. Also, we haven't yet figured out how tenses would work in the era of time-travel so if we get to travel in time, literature would also need to be upgraded in order to incorporate a more clear understanding of the "directional" time.

The Need of Literature

Writing and Reading are the fundamental labels of civilization. It was a product of the desire to use words to communicate complicated ideas amongst people. Reading is about compassion, it is an act when we imagine; what it would be like to be someone else in a certain situation. It is not easy to express what one is feeling through words. However, reading could give us the tools to express and write what we precisely want to convey. It is a kind of an iteration process, the more we read the more we know about other people's feeling and about our own.

Experience and Empathy

The beauty of literature is that it gives one a way to gain an understanding of complex ideas and emotions. The emotions and feelings that may have taken decays if were left alone to be understood via experience. Reading can take us to infinite kind situations such as famine, war, murder, romance, and breakups. Some situations that we may not experience in life directly. With the access to reading, we can experience. That in turn, helps us gaining a sense of empathy towards friends and family in a similar situation. 

The Consequences of Actions

Literature makes one empathetic by making us see the consequences of actions in the long run, over a shorter time span.  One can read a "coming out of age" novel and understand how certain small things can form a whole identity/personality trait. It shows us the bigger picture of rather smaller actions. It makes one see others as people, who are capable of similar feeling and emotions as ourselves. Thus makes us kinder and sympathetic about what they are going through. 

My Reading Habits

I was hooked on to reading by Nacy Drew and Harry Potter. It has been an amazing experience so far. I had no one to guide me through the books that I should read. So I kind of improvised and today I am at a place where I know what kind of literature I will enjoy reading. However, Picking a favorite book or genre is always perplexing. It is pretty much like picking up your favorite child. I often answer that question with "one of" my favorite books. But, you see it is not that easy.

The Dilemma of Genre 

In the recent past, there has been a heated debate that Young Adult (YA) genre in literature is... umm, How do I put it.. "not good enough". That debate bashes the adults reading YA genre. I think that YA  is intended for teens and has many topics revolving around the life of teens (and people in their early 20s). But, if as an adult one is exclusively reading the contemporary YA it is not such a good option. There is no problem with reading YA but the exclusivity of it is akin to looking at just one side or section of literature. I would suggest mixing it up a little with some classics. 

That said, I often find Young Adult genre engaging and pleasurable. It is often designed to introduce and engage people in literature. There are numbers of contemporary YA fiction that are really good, such as Hunger Games. But some are terrible like that Vampire Stories. However, I find many YA books off-putting for reasons such as:
Romanticization of unhealthy relationships
Dumbing Down assuming the readers to be lowbrowed, thus using easy vocab.
Not being intellectually stimulating
Slut shaming 
The portray of the same personalities of the protagonist 
Unrealistic representation of Teenagers ...

This month I have been a little picky to read as I couldn't find any book stimulating or engaging enough. However, I think it is a matter of time. I will find a good book or may regain interest in the pile of half-read abandoned books. Let me know what you like reading and what is your take on literature. 

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