The Great Indian Youth

Some days ago, me and my friend were having an usual conversation over a phone call. But as usual, one thing led up to other and we ended up discussing about our lives and what we were actually doing. Well, like the usual, we started by comparing how we were better from the other people, how we didn't do things others were addicted to and such stuffs. We discussed the most ignored question in India: Who are Indian Youths really?

India has the most youth population in the whole world. India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan; and, by 2030, India's dependency ratio should be just over 0.4. Well, that's a great thing for the country, isn't it? Is it, really? Let's look back at history of the last century upto today and see what we have achieved as a country and how in the recent time we have had 'benefit' because of the huge youth population. As many people have a habit of looking at the past, let's start from there. In the 20th century, apart from getting Independence, we got 2 Nobel Prizes(Literature, Rabindranarh Tagore, 1913;Amartya Sen, 1998); won 8 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze medals(individual+team) at the Olympics; won just 2 Oscars. I know you know these, but well it's better to make things refreshed. In the years following 2000, India has got 3 Oscars(in the field of music), 1 Nobel Peace Prize, 1 gold, 4 silver and 8 bronze medals(individual+team) at the Olympics. No major startup idea or global company has emerged from India in the last few years.

It's really surprising that the land which boasts legendary epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana, has not won a single major prize in Literature in the last 105 years. Although people of Indian-origin like Salman Rushdie, ArundhatiRoy, Jhumpa Lahiri to name a few, have won major Prizes in Literature, but no one from India has won it. In the era of 'micro tales' and romantic or pop fiction tales, classics have deteriorated and are read by very few people. Reading romantic novels has been a trend, thus leading to the Youths selecting wrong people as their role models and inspiration. And they too, in most cases, follow the pattern of these writers, resulting in being popular or best seller, but without an award. Another thing that started for a good purpose, but is being misused is the practice of microtale. Microtale usually means  an extremely short story. But we have converted into literally anything we could think of, starting from random blabberings about love to buttering up people. These days, if you don't write microtales, you are not in trend and you will be considered old-fashioned, are the words of some people. So almost everyone, even the people who don't even have a proper English sense write microtales, resulting in laughable, logicless and unnecessary lines. Rarely one finds a good book by an Indian writer these days. And very handful youth writers are also trying a lot to revive the literature in India.

Next let's come to the biggest trending thing, not only in India, but in the whole world: trolling. These days, if you don't troll others and don't share memes, you are a pretty uncool and boring person. Talk about logical and serious topics, you will be seen as a serious guy, who just tries to showoff his knowledge. Well, in today's world it's meme who is omnipresent, not God. You can find countless logical as well as illogical memes everywhere, starting from WhatsApp status to even Tweets. And everyone and anyone can be trolled and used as a meme, starting from Bollywood movies to even Prime Minister (or should I just refer to him with as much respect as trollers do, like he's the next door friend of theirs). And there are even some serious things which have been memefied, when all that should be pondered upon and some action should have been taken. Let me give you an example of this thing. In 2017, all must have seen the many memes and funny videos on Kamlesh, when it was a pretty serious affair. Have you ever seen the people of any other country 'memefying' the serious issues which needs to be taken care of. Imagine this:(As you compare everything with foreign countries, so I'm comparing here also. Please pardon, I know India is a great country) Something like this happens in Britain or USA. A documentary on what is the condition of kids on the streets are surfaces. Do you think it would become a meme and 'people will really laugh at it' the way they did in India? Will they not take the issue seriously and go to the Government? But well who cares right? Memes are memes and they 'make our day'. What's the use of sharing countless memes in a single day and feel proud about it(recently a meme of Jimmy Fallon writing thank you card surfaced with the lines:People are getting jobs, getting married and buying a house; and then there's me:This meme is funny). Dude, what the hell are you doing? Share memes, but be logical; troll people but not unnecessarily over matters which shouldn't be trolled; and well you need to focus on serious topics too.

Another thing that seriously needs to be changed is the attitude of the youths; attitude in the sense that the youths try and behave as such, so as to be tagged as 'cute', 'handsome','cool' or 'sexy'. Some girls keep on posting 'cute' pics of theirs throughout the day with cheesy captions; others post screenshots of their 'favourite cartoon show', others click pics in different filters-to name a few instances. A sensible person would feel offended and childish when branded with 'cute'. Watch cartoons, because sometimes  you need to escape from the harsh reality of  the world, but try not to make it the base for your real life happenings. Being 'cute' helps in no way. The same goes for being handsome and sexy as well. If you just cut your hair in a stylish way, but you know nothing, then it's of no use. And yeah, let's talk about being cool. Now-a-days, being cool and being in trend are synonymous to each other. If you haven't done anything that's in trend or you don't get a meme reference, then you are outdated. If you haven't smoked hookah, if you haven't played PUBG, if you don't use some particular 'figure of speeches' while speaking, then my dear, you are outdated and you're boring. Why the hell do you talk about politics, Farmers and all the issues? Why don't you talk about memes, PUBG and such stuffs? I'd been receiving a huge amount of taunts, just because I uninstalled PUBG. Some of my friends asked me how could I even do that. Getting addicted to a game or any other thing doesn't sound cool and it's obviously not a thing to be proud of.

The next thing we will talk about is the thing that originated in 2018, and has produced actors in almost every house. Drama clubs? No, I'm talking about TikTok. I really don't get the point why would people keep on ranting about any and every stuff day and night there. What's even the point of using it? If you ever want to be an actor or an actress, try and get into your nearest theatre group, how does making Tik Tok videos help? And they are other apps for 'time pass', it's pointless making those shitty videos. And if at all you are making them, what's the point in uploading them on status' everywhere? Do you really think your 'acting talent' will be judged from there? Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Manoj Bajpayee were such fools! They could have done it this way, instead of trying repeatedly to get into NSD.

Let's talk about future now. I can see you stiffening. Thinking about future really scares you, doesn't it? Or you think you are Rancho from 3 Idiots? Movies sometimes influence people in the wrong way. I can surely say that 60% of youths in India don't know what they will be doing in future. They are aimless, walking down a dark path, confused, but still enjoying their life. Do you remember what you wanted to be when you were in school? Is that spark still alive? It isn't in many cases. You must have encountered people giving all kinds of exams, ranging from Bank PO to Railways, just for the sake of getting job and money. But, is it enough? Where's the spark? How did it die? If a job doesn't interest you, you'll never be satisfied doing it. So things as serious as future shouldn't be taken lightly and should be properly planned.

My friend, who had taken engineering coaching in Kota, once told me that the teachers there discourage reading newspaper because it will 'distract their mind from studies'. How can a person be successful without staying in touch with the daily happenings? He can't just build a country on Science and Maths alone, can he? How do you suppose a doctor who never had any friends in his life, to treat you? There are many other huge problems in the education sector. This was just a minor one. Maybe I know what kills the sparks in children. Constant taunts and insults by the teachers, parents and relatives on the student, when he/she scores less in the exam or has no interest in 'studies'. A renaissance is required, at least in the field of education in India. Well, this topic will be discussed later on in another piece.

You know another reason why we the Indian youths can't do anything? It's due to the wrong choice of icons. We have chosen the worst of people, who will not lead us anywhere as our icons and we laugh at people who try and give us some advice. We have made people who by using strong swear words(oh sorry, figure of speech), which so-called feminists have no problem with, make some shitty stuffs and we seem to see our life in it, famous; we have made many shitty songs,movies and people famous, just by talking about them. Have you heard of Sadhguru? Or Sandeep Maheswari? Do you watch their videos with as much eagerness as you watch the vines? It's entirely upto us whether we need good content, which will make something out of us famous, or some shitty people, who while making you laugh at your house, are making a huge amount of money and laughing at you. We have been always after the wrong people. This needs to change really. I just gave you the example of YouTube, as it's the trend these days. The youth these days have become very stalkerish, thanks to the potrayal of stalking as love in Bollywood movies. Because many people 'model' themselves after Bollywood movies, they most of the time get the wrong message and do some really really disgusting stuff. But it's the same everywhere. Just look around you, you'll maybe realize your mistake.

There's still some time left. Our minds have not been much polluted yet. There's time for a change to arrive. This is the time for Revolution. Let's stand up for the right causes, let's stand up for the farmers and the army, and not either for PewDiePie or T-Series. Let's do something productive and thought provoking and not just waste away our time watching pointless and shitty stuffs. Let's share good things and make good people famous. Let's fight together for a greater cause, and not among ourselves. Let's protest for a bigger cause, not for the small logicless things. Let's not allow the creation of division among us. Let's demand for jobs, real ones. Let's demand for the solution of the real problems of the country, let's not share "Mandir Wahin Banega" memes. Let's not be 'cute' or 'childish', let's be brainy and smart. Wake up when there's still time. We can win the Nobel, we can sweep out the Oscars, we the Indian Youths can rule the world; but only if we try unitedly. Can we do that?