Tale of A Society!

It is bit difficult to describe the current state of Indian Society. A society with rich heritage of centuries seem to be clearly in state of dilemma at the moment. On one side, the current generation is aware of the rich tradition which it has inherited but at the same time it is attracted by the comfort, luxuries offered by the modern world. Various factors in the current ecosystem are undermining the influence of the Indian tradition on the current generation. 

This post is clearly not well structured in terms of flow of thoughts. Still here are some points to ponder over. 

1.  Culture Transitioning - Prior generation was not as confident as their ancestors in transitioning the culture to this generation. Reasons may be many. They were the first ones who got seriously exposed to the modern world. They were impressed from the word go and lost the willingness to understand the true reasoning behind following the traditions. Though they followed most of them, they failed to maintain the originality of those traditions in most of the cases. The new avatars of our traditions / festivals had very little depth remaining in them. They merely became formalities. 
2. Dilemma - Prima facie current generation appears to be modern, but it is very difficult to shed the inner values, beliefs (which you have inherited for generations) in span of merely ten - twenty years. So there is that struggle which many of the new generation individuals are subjected to. The struggle of the lingering values, beliefs passed from your ancestors versus the surrounding ecosystem which prefers glamorous events.
3. Social Events - Prior generation thrived on festivals, marriages, daily gatherings in market places and so on so forth. It was their need. There would be some not-so-pleasant comments, small insults thrown at the individuals in these events. But they were perfectly fine with these imperfect experiences in the life. Current generation saw the transition from joint family to nuclear families, change of medium of education from vernacular to English and SSC board changing to national / international boards. These factors seriously dented their connections with their roots. And they started isolating themselves from the social events which involves their relatives. Everyone started minding their own business.  
4. Trust, Insecure feeling etc.- Trust levels within our society are definitely going down. Changing times have made us believe that we are solely responsible to take care of our near and dear ones. It is giving us that feeling of insecurity and making us become more competitive. The society is more driven by status symbols like the size / locality of the apartment, car you own, places you go for your vacations etc. Frankly speaking most of us in the cities have sufficient with us as far as our basic needs are concerned. 

Where does it leave us now? The number of relatives with whom an individual would stay connected (I mean seriously connected) has significantly come down. These relatives would be your emotional support system by giving you really good advice. However old you grow, you mostly would have relatives who would call you with childhood nickname and treat you like you are a kid. It served as emotional shock absorber from harsh realities of the world. Now we have to be on our own right from early stages of your life if you are living in one of the Indian metros specially in Mumbai. 

We still do develop great bonds at workplace and in our neighbourhood. But by very nature of current world, we change jobs, cities more frequently.  And these emotional support systems disappear suddenly leaving a big void.  Not everyone will perceive this as problem statement. All of us like to believe that we are emotionally strong and we can be on our own. Somewhere it creates a lot of stress on us. Stress of constantly appearing as an emotionally strong person. Everyone has different techniques to make it appear as genuine. At times we act very strong, bit aggressive person so that no one can reach our inner self. Biggest problem modern generation is going to face is when they retire. They will have very limited people around them to interact. The way we have built our cities is going to make their problem worse. We have simply destroyed our playgrounds, open spaces. Getting out of our homes, even if it is in our cars is becoming stressful experience day of day. 

Can we do anything about it now? We are witnessing a transition period. The next couple of generations in metros will gradually get used to this new way of living. The social interactions will significantly reduce, the traditions, culture will evolve.  During this transition period, we can take care of our immediate family, friend circle. If you believe near and dear ones give you feel that you are welcome then you can play that role to keep your limited social circle of relatives / friends active. You will have to be ready to take some no-so-pleasant comments, gestures in your stride but still you can gain some inner satisfaction that you played your role while the transition of great Indian tradition in metros was in its final stages of decline. The rural India will continue to preserve this tradition, culture for some more time.