The Indian youth is one which is growing in a country riven, a country which is desperately trying to ape the west, even as it fights with itself to keep a hold of its own cultural roots and centuries old traditions. The youth of the nation, growing in a bubble of technology and rising change, is confused, and it is overly dependent on its elders when it comes to matters of guidance and on thinking of the paths that their life should take. They are reliant on the knowledge of their parents and their families, unready, or unwilling to take the reins of their life in their own hands.
However, these youngsters need to realize that they are the future of the nation, and of the world as well. They cannot be dependent on their elders forever, soon it will be they who have to bear the burden of their decisions and of the many obstacles that life will throw in their path. Soon, there will be no curtain of family and teachers which will act as a veil of resistance between the worst that life has to throw at these youngsters. Soon, they will be on their own. To best prepare for the future, the youth of today needs to start thinking independently and take their life and decisions about their future in their own hands, or if that is too extreme, they should at least start thinking seriously about their future goals and aspirations and start giving their family inputs on what they want to do later on in life, so that they can make well-informed and educated decisions, together. In the process, even if they do end up making small mistakes, at least the mistakes will be their own, and they won’t have to blame anyone else for it. No regrets, just a life well lived.
As one of my favourite characters stated oh so eloquently in my favourite series of books,
“There is no task too vast, no odds too overwhelming – for even should we fail – should we fall, we will know that we have lived”.
The youth of today needs to come out beyond the closeted world of their mobile phones and social media networks and computers and tablets, because even though these have given them unprecedented access to information and knowledge and reduced global distances to mere specks of data crossed in seconds over wires, they have made them overly reliant on gadgets and technology as well.
The youth needs to stop merely tweeting and facebook-ing and start living, after all, there’s a whole wide world outside of cyberspace, and it is far greater with its depth and stories than anything created in virtual reality.
Critical thinking, logical reasoning, intellectual debates and thought-provoking discussions, these should be followed by the youngsters of today so that they can become better leaders for tomorrow, so that they can take the crumbling pillars of society and strengthen them with ties of harmony, brotherhood, and logic, replacing fear, superstitions and intolerance.
The world will one day be in the hands of youngsters, it is time they began taking steps in the right directions so that it can grow in the right way and be propelled on the path to a greater – and more importantly, happier – future.
Start thinking, make your own decisions, become the architects of your own life.
