The crowd was becoming restless, all too excited. Their backpacks hanged loosely behind them, all their eyes en masse rallied at one point. All are looking at the closed majestic wrought iron gate of the elite hotel of the city.
My office located on the second floor of the building diagonally opposite the hotel. The flurry of activity was the result of thousands of overzealous students. Excited, they aged between sixteen to twenty-five years old. They were, perhaps intermediate or second or third year engineering graduates. I could make out by way of their uniforms or their slim bags. The crowd seemed to flock with a hint of carelessness, and evidence of, ‘we don’t care’ manners. They are restless and noisy. More than a hundred young girls inclusive all have crammed to have ‘one glimpse’ of their favorite hero. Who comfortably tucked inside the most luxurious hotel – resting?
Next day, I noticed the entire roads, lanes, pavements, and the surroundings of the hotel area. They filled with trash, filth, the smell of rotten overnight leftovers. I further learned that the pride and joy of thousands of fan followers. The hero left to an exotic foreign locale. To dance and swing with a couple of pretty twenty-something damsels.
I’m left to wonder we the teachers struggling to instill some workable, common-sense to the students. Passing through the stinking odor, I kept thinking, “How insensitive these filmy types are, they are enjoying the best. But they are leaving behind, by default, a bad living model to the young adults who are mad after them”.
Besides, I’m prompted to think, how these teens are ruining their careers. They are unaware of their priorities, their responsibilities at hand. The words aspiration, aptitude, and advantages seemed not ringing a bell to them. It’s like they are behaving that ‘the word future’ has no relevance to their lives.
I kept puzzling of their sheer folly of the dumbness. It’s about the mad obsession growing among the teens, going after the movie idols.“How misplaced the outlook and priorities of our youngsters”. The thought itself sounds very disturbing. Deplorably, it is so frustrating to look at how selfish our cinema folks are? And the shameless lack of civility. How they go about joyfully enjoying this idolization. And use it for personal advantage and advancement.
One fact is more than reasonably disturbing me. Of late, a few of the film heroes, aware of their fading age and glamour, would want to try their theatrical skills in politics. They keenly bent announcing to serve their motherland, their people. Their avowed pledge: to root out corruption, eradicate poverty
My dear great at heart film fraternity. I fully endorse and appreciate your commitment to the nation, and it’s downtrodden. I wish you could follow the footsteps of our Noble laureate and peace prize winner Kailash Satyarthi. To pursue one cause and make a difference at the least in one significant aspect of the needy at the grassroots level of our society. Like he did for the “Save childhood movement”: The single largest civil society network for the most exploited children.
India greatly needs someone to motivate its fresh graduates to become self-reliant, self-dependent. Help them to invest all their efforts in that direction. Instead, they may find themselves in one big pool of millions of graduates and engineers. Finally left as uneducated, unemployed or unemployable. I presume who would be more apt to take up this task other than the filmy legends. Those who claim to have millions of followers both in physical numbers and digitally?
I know that good work in our society accomplished chiefly by people who care about this generation who are aware of their shortcomings. Being aware of this fact, I expect the generous patriots (read politicians and film heroes/heroines) to encourage the Indian young to think in these lines.
“I don’t expect and rely on someone that they would help and salvage me now and in future.” “I’m on my own. And there is no one out there ready to work for me”. “I must cultivate employable skills; enhance my usefulness in my chosen activity. It would be good for me to recognize this as my fundamental precondition to stand on my feet”.
What I could see a large part of lakhs of youngsters. Who are graduates, engineers are the most confused, directionless, ill-advised, and ignored lot? They are literate only on paper. Unfortunately, we find them as unskilled in all metal denominations. Failing to contribute to the GDP of the nation.
As a teacher, I see them not competent enough to stand on their own. Or their communication or technical knowhow good enough to invite them to a job of a decent remuneration.
There is a greater requirement today than anytime else in the previous generations. For a few persuasive personalities humbly take up the calling. The task to enlighten our ambitious but creatively starved Smartphone generation. To get the idea of how valuable it would for our young scholars. To undertake one responsible step at a time in recognizing and enriching the social skills.
I wish if our screen heroes’ could use their appeal and mass following. To change to correct some of the twisted directions our youth are confusedly choosing. They can through widespread social media channels speak and persuade the teens. They can create an appreciable climate where young people are made to identify. The expertise: like good communication, social skills, well-rounded character. What is good for them as individuals and to the country as a whole?
It is no exaggeration the massive influential quotient held by our film celebrities. The public adoration by scores of youngsters for them is evident everywhere. They are willing to listen to them. The enthusiastic phobia can assemble the young people in lakhs with just one command from their favorite idol.
The generation of Indians who need the significant awareness to become productively mature and self-reliant. And to bring about a changed revolution, it’s spoken to with a high persuasive pitch. It conveyed in a simple tone that every young Indian can connect.
The Smartphone generation mustn’t lose time to utilize the advantages of the favorable economic growth in India. Plan to fasten themselves to the fast-changing and technological developments in the world. And profit from their proximity to the omnipresent internet and tech-gadgets.
But it is sound judgment to note one important reality. That is to seek these features are not like low hanging fruits to take quick advantage. They can’t see them as perks to enjoy and would automatically come to choosing to benefit them.
It matters significantly for the Indian youth to seize the favorable technological accessibility. Quickly decide to select the skills to learn, expertise to pick up, and equally supported by grit.
Unfortunately, these are fields where many of our millennials’ are on backfoot. Especially graduates are emerging from semi-urban and rural domains. For many it would be an uphill task, to succeed facing such harsh multiple disadvantages. For them to overcome the fundamentals. What is necessary for them is practical, day to day guidance and good role models.
The first discouraging twist the young ones would have to deal with was when they enter the colleges. They have to contend with the skewed design of teaching and examination systems. They have to move around in unstimulating surroundings. Disappointed, they may regard as a setback when their aspirations never merit an appreciation.
The grownups are stereotyped as believing whatever passed on as training was what they have to settle with: nothing more or nothing less. They would find no facility or a yardstick to put to the test their aspirations. Or their inner inventiveness, and their preferences. Very quickly they learn the system, carelessly, set like one syllabus fits the bill. It’s to attempt to Implement an outdated academic logic to cover the combined requirements of the youth.
As a result of the majority of graduates, or the job aspirants coming out of the colleges seen with ‘don’t know how’ to tap their talents. Or test their inbuilt smartness. And therefore at a loss not knowing what are the real-time mental and social demands. They are scared once they step out into a world of reality and challenges. Where to start or whom to seek advice or whom to follow?
Many young Indians are failing to recognize. That every individual a genetically packed with multi-layered abilities. He possessed enough strength to display his artistry, and an attitude to accomplish it. The access to information, to any teen, is same whether he sits in a remote village in India or high rise New York skyscrapers. The self-motivation and driving passion are triggers to push them forward. By sheer grit, these learnable traits have to be sharpened to work as self-employable catalysts.
To put the open-minded young adults on the right tracks. We need spirited teachers, eloquent professors, motivated parents, passionate grandparents. Who can highlight the ways to identify the essentials factors to be a successful person? And enough self-awareness to confront any contest they face. I want the educative medicine administered: how and by whom I’m not bothered. But I’m looking forward to the outcome that is effective and practically implementable for the teens of today.
They are millions of Indian youth who are dreaming big. Chasing their dreams for them is a ‘do or die’ life battle. Let’s help to achieve their goals.
Let’s all come together for one encouraging cause. Let our dynamic young at heart know that we are living in a land of promise, and unlimited opportunities. Let’s give them profitable ideas on how to transform their lives and reach their goals. Let’s give them useful instructions necessary to use the ‘skills and tools’ to create a magnificent future. Let’s teach them how to prepare their life plans and blueprints so that they can lead a life of worthiness and happiness.
