Living on The Edge !!

My protagonist, lets name him Alok, for easy reference , was born in a still conservative India. It was the year 1980. It was the era when the values and ethics still held high in the society, when children would still say nameste to elders and when they would touch the feet of the old people. When he would feel elated at the thought of watching a movie on DD1, when he would imitate Ashok Kumar in Hum Log , when he would fascinate about the outer world watching Space City Sigma, when his adrenine would get booasted watching Spiderman , He-man, when he was amazed by the Story of Ramayana and Mahabharata, when he would find Lord Krishna, the naughty side of himself, when he would feel so happy to receive prasada in the temple after the prayers, when his life has no more complications than doing homework, watching TV and playing, when Dharmendra was a Strong man, when Rajdoot was the Bike of the Strong Men, when Nirma was the most popular Washing powder available, when Lakshman-Sylvania was the best known brank for the blub, when colour TV was still a thing of rich , when Cable was in its nascent stage , when computer was not the world heard-of except in big companies ,when Resumes were typed in Typewriter, when taking picture was a rich act, when life was mostly on bicycles or Scooter(Lamerreta), when in marriages the most famous song was "Meray Yaar Ki Shadi Hai..", when schools were just about studies, when Doctors, Engineer, Civil Servants were the most sought-after professions, when Cinema halls were visted during any special occasion, when the whole family used to sit for dinner together, when the childeren used to sleep by 10pm , when crackers were exploded from the day of Dusherra, when the putlas of the Trio Ravana were made in each society, when the champaks were very famous, when the Mickey and Donald and Tom and Jerry , were the life of kids, when girl friend, boy friend was not the topic discussed in home, when the TV was switched off or channel changed, when an ad of Sanitary napkin or Condom was shown, when Discovery of India was a fabulous Documentary shown on TV, when Independence Day and Republic Day were special occasion to see the Parades in DD1 or DD2 and listen to the PM/ President's Speech and the heart would get filed with patriotism, when Hindi was language of all, when light and water were a luxuary and so whatever available to the people , was taken with regards, when children used to dance in rain, when Iodex was the trusted name in case of pain in bones, when vicks and dettol were the only thing known in their categories, when showing extra-marital affair was equi-valent to showing an Adult movie, when the romance on-screen was limited to kisses and which used to happen behind 2 flowers, when rich guy , poor girl or vica-versa were the main theme of the movie, when the villians used to rape the girl,when the birthdays were celebrated with a visit to the temple and celebrated with Jalebis and Kheer, when politics was not affecting the lives of people, so much, when Government job was the most sought-after job, when dowry was a intimate part of the marriage, when melas were the part of every town and city , when telephone was not much heard-of, when USA was considered a different world altogether, when Hockey was the game of the nation, when a sadhu was never shooed-away, when the fore-cast was made by the sadhus visiting homes, when chitrahaar was the sole medium of watching songs, when rangoli was the best attraction on a sunday morning, when Helen and the likes were considered as Bad woman and were the chosen one for such bad roles, when crying was a basic ingredient of any movie/serial, when Kancha bottle was the best available soda at that time, when kite flying was the common pastimes of kids and young in the evenings, when friends were made for the lifetime , when neighbors were most closest to your family. But it was then. Now he has moved through the course of his life from a small city to a cosmopolitan place, Bangalore and has even seen the pomp and show of America , while in Silicon Valley for an year.

But today when he sits back and think of the times gone by , he sometimes feel , is he the part of this new India, has he stopped progressing like others, is he still roaming in the old times, when the new world has taken over this country.

He sees a different India, a country when kids do nothing for compulsion, they nickname everyone, young or old, and they make fun of anyone. They watch Ramayana or Mahabharata, only for fun, they don’t need to learn anything from this archaic holy books. They prefer animation Hanumana rather than in the Ramayana, coz he is lot funnier and animated. And he entertain them for 3 hours rather than the sluggish progress of Ramayana Epic with some many sentimental songs in it, when they prefer watching Friends rather than watching the re-telecast of Naya Nukkad, when Fast is the game, when temples are tourist spots , when Hrithik is masculine , when keeping girl friend or boy friend is common as keeping pets, when smoking cigerattes is no longer a taboo, when getting high(drugs) is what every youth lounges for, very often , when celebrations is done with Whiskey and Beer, when adult movies, porn sites are considered normal, when watching condom ads and sanitary napkins ads are considered a part of sex-education, when Channel [V], MTV are the rocking channels,when extra-marital affairs in TV is as common as guy falling in love with a girl, when the TV serials are no less than soft porn, when Aastha and similar channels are meant for the old people, when News is more interesting than a hindi movie, when Sansani is much better than a suspense serial, when watching movie is just to relax for 3 hours, when hot babes and macho guys are the only ingredients of a successful movie, when Item girls and item numbers are a part of the marketing strategy of the producer, when sex sells everything, when morals and values and ethics are considered im-practical, when IIT, IIM are as known as Parliament, when XBOX, Play stations are the in things for the kids, when independent houses have become equivalent to a Villa and Flat are as common as Jhiggis in the past are when neighbors are seen as frequently as Full moon, when fast money, fast cars are in the thoughts of every youth, when a government job is dull and job in IT industry, call center is the rocking job, when Share Trading terminals are available in every nook and corner , when India is making frequent headlines in the international newspaper as a Powerful Economy in this world, when going to USA is like making a trip to the south, when choices in any product category is mind boggling , when price , sentiments and quality have a very complicated relationship in mind of a product owner, when jeans , mini-skirts, Camisoles are as casual in a girl's wardrove as Salwaar Kameez, when beggars and sadhus are shooed away and money is given for charirty of Tsumani , Kartina, Rita and Earthquake victims, when friends have a limited shelf life , when going aborad is no more a prestige symbol, when being online 24 hours is the need of the day, when 24 hrs availability of light and electricity is equivalent to a fundamental right.

So , Alok is living in this present world, and he feels, he is a bit outdated, he never had any girl friend, infact his group in school and college also never had any girl friends, now either they were a bad omen for him or he was a bad omen for them ,he had lots of crushes but they were all crushed , when he started working in a company, he found that all his colleagues are far ahead of him, some had more than one girlfriend, some had stable girl friend for years altogether, some had affairs with married women , some had all the fun of the youth before marriage , he was surprised to see this new world, when pre-marital sex is not an issue , the issue is a safe sex, when virginity is no more a very strict requirement for marriage, when statistics show that an average guy looses his virginity in the age of 16-20 and girls even before that, when jokes on sex are as common and accepted as jokes in Sardars,. This is the changing time, this is the changing India. Probably Alok didn’t change fast enough to catch up with the new India, probably for him, the previous world still feel much better, when he loves the slow moving life, when he still cherishes the old wind , probably he is too stupid to resist such change, or probably he didn’t find this new fast moving, glossy world, very enticing. As the lyrics in “Living on the Edge” goes, " There is something wrong with the world today ............."