Generation gap: Is there really one?

by Lavanya Nicola

Whenever I connect with friends from my childhood, we always somehow land up comparing our notes on our children: their lives, environment and their modern cultures in relation to ours. 

Everything is so different now compared to the times we grew up. Sometimes it feels almost like another life actually. 

It is true in the sense that so many things, people and situations that which apparently seemed unique, weird or otherwise, few decades ago are today common and considered even normal.

But then, the human civilisation has seen infinite waves of of such norms, fad, fashion and craze at every turn of our history. 

I would like to view our societal climate more like an another chapter of our human race, like the ones history has experienced before, except for this current one feels more like a melting pot of everything we claimed to have known, practiced and humanly followed until now.

For many of us old-timers, what we see or witness now might feel like a decline of deviance, end of diversity, and even confusing and still there is a ray of Hope. 

In reality, perhaps an another variant, an upgraded human generation is cocooning. They will too find their own survival toolset amidst these unprecedented times. 

Now, maybe they may not necessarily act, think or imbibe life like we did or do but they have come out of us and carry somewhat of us within them.  They will too find their path, through all the trials, errors and falls, just like we did. 

After all, their environment, surroundings and challenges are quite more complexed than our lives at their age. So, in reality, they won’t survive being us in these current times. They will need to be themselves but will need lots of support and guidance from us. This assurance of love will eventually become their lighthouse to living Life. 

So, yes! The dynamics of our future generations is very different and multifaceted than their predecessors. The ‘gap’ between every generation is perhaps just a temporary phase of ordinariness, a brewing space for the new human potential to be revived and discovered. 

And this definitely feels like a Hope!