Q: How's my life been? Mind-blowing?
A: Meh.
My dad and his friends lived in a time when India was not the way it is now. When transportation was not all that developed and communication was primarily through postcards and inland letters, because telephones were gadgets of affluence and luxury. At a time when kids could not attend school because the family made less than Rs 5 a month. If you had traveled to a distant land, the only assurance the family got that you have reached safely is not a missed call, but is when they received a postcard from you a couple of weeks later.
Life is a lot simpler now. And for some reason I have a complaint to make. LIFE'S NOT CHALLENGING ENOUGH! What stories would I tell my children as they grow up? His stories (and my late grandfathers' as well) are so exciting! They talk of their struggles which were about getting through the ride of life... it has not been nearly as challenging for me. Even now, I am 25, and I love to listen to my dad tell stories of Naxal attacks, droughts, floods - all in the absence of today's comforts... My late maternal grandfather was a doctor and he owned a horse. He used to ride his horse from village to village to treat ailing people. He was a respected man. The story sounds so inspiring...
I am currently going to graduate school and my life stories are neither interesting nor groundbreaking. Neither is my research life-changing. I HAVE NO STORIES TO TELL. The only stories I can tell my children are of how much I try to save money to buy a good camera accessory for myself. Not nearly as exciting. The story has no repeat value. My children or grandchildren are not going to demand of me to tell the story again.
A: Meh.
My dad and his friends lived in a time when India was not the way it is now. When transportation was not all that developed and communication was primarily through postcards and inland letters, because telephones were gadgets of affluence and luxury. At a time when kids could not attend school because the family made less than Rs 5 a month. If you had traveled to a distant land, the only assurance the family got that you have reached safely is not a missed call, but is when they received a postcard from you a couple of weeks later.
Life is a lot simpler now. And for some reason I have a complaint to make. LIFE'S NOT CHALLENGING ENOUGH! What stories would I tell my children as they grow up? His stories (and my late grandfathers' as well) are so exciting! They talk of their struggles which were about getting through the ride of life... it has not been nearly as challenging for me. Even now, I am 25, and I love to listen to my dad tell stories of Naxal attacks, droughts, floods - all in the absence of today's comforts... My late maternal grandfather was a doctor and he owned a horse. He used to ride his horse from village to village to treat ailing people. He was a respected man. The story sounds so inspiring...
I am currently going to graduate school and my life stories are neither interesting nor groundbreaking. Neither is my research life-changing. I HAVE NO STORIES TO TELL. The only stories I can tell my children are of how much I try to save money to buy a good camera accessory for myself. Not nearly as exciting. The story has no repeat value. My children or grandchildren are not going to demand of me to tell the story again.
Thanks to D for having this
thought provoking discussion with me.
thought provoking discussion with me.
5 comments:
Boring lives we lead, don't we. We're scared of bombs and blasts, and bills, and that we aren't earning enough. I think my parents had way more exciting lives too :(
I am glad you agree with me. I am also not that glad because you agree with the truth. :) I was hoping someone could prove me wrong... ;-)
Oh com'on! there are so many stories....you will be telling them about a time when people thought that there was only one earth...about an entirely different species called 'graduate students'....about a world that was divided into something called countries and people voted thinking that they run the world...and USA among all was a superpower!...and then you will witness jaw drop action from your grandchildren...[:)]
Antisensestrand, if I tell THAT to my grandchildren, it will only be a matter of time I will be given that "senile" tag...
And I cannot even say it was all your idea!
I am going to disappoint you as well, I totally think we are leading boring lives. I am going out tonight, and I already know all I am going to think about is how much I have left to study for my qualifiers. We've led some sort of an "ideal" life that is far from being so. And everything we do these days, seems so superficial, it vanishes after a while. Very few things in the memory are worthy of being recalled, rest everything seems just spur of the moment, a mean to get out of the boredom we all get back to at the end of the day... quite sad
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