That was my first reaction when I first heard what was going on right outside my front door - to ask myself where I am. Because this isn't a scene I have witnessed before. I was chatting with my buddy Ashwin, and it was 1am at night here in Austin, and he was surprised when I asked him too - Where Am I? Call me naive, but I have never heard this kinda talk in my life before.
The Conversation
Girl A : Yayyy...here comes the birthday girl! And here is her birthday boy, her birthday gift.
Girl B : This is a birthday party? Awww..you should have told me. I just got a fresh stash yesterday. We could have smoked some pot tonight. Hey, have you done it before?
Birthday Girl : Nope.
Girl B : Aww...my friend here..what's your name?..
Birthday Girl : Gina.
Girl B : Yeah, Gina, here has never done it before people. Do we still have time?
Boy C : Heyyyy..is that Cigga-weed?... Ha? ...Ha? How come you are doing it alone. Come on give me some.
Girl B : C'mon Gina. Give it a shot. It's just marijuana. It's clinically approved.
Loud cheers sound out.
What is so weird?
Well, I have never had friends that indulge in such acts. Never. Neither have I ever been in the neighbourhood of such activities all my life. No wonder then that this incident, happening right outside my door, late at night, with some of the people that poured out of the loud, obnoxious party next door, gave me a little shock.
Except at work and at the stores, I hardly interact with StrangeLandians here. Atleast, most of my friendly chats are limited to Indians, and that made me feel I am still in India, to some extent. But, this kinda jolted me back to reality. It's hard to escape this here in StrangeLand, no matter where you live, what with the "fresh stash" apparently available freely.
Is India clean?
With all the overnight prosperity HomeLand is seeing, with bloated salaries and extravagant lifestyles, which is only true of the urban classes, how far can we be from this way of life? A life where your only intention is to live happily, with no consideration to morals and with no attachment to one's culture that parents try hard to inculcate. "What I like, is what I shall do."
With both parents increasingly deciding to take up full-time jobs to support the family's lavish needs, kids are thrust relatively early into life on their own, with no protection whatsoever of the parent's guiding words to keep them away from vices. I have lived in Pune, and witnessed how a mass of young students and highly-paid young professionals exploit their new-found freedom. Exposed to the western way of life on TV, chat shows, tabloids, gloss magazines, movies, they are beginning to discover what they are missing out on, in life. The old adage, "You only have one life" is beaten to death to explain all the vices one will indulge into.
I have encountered people who acknowledge, very openly, that they are into smoking gaanja, or marijuana, right there in Pune. I have heard them talk about finding their way through the police bandobast to get their hands on some "maal" for the weekend. They are even known to make the cigga-weed mentioned above and present it as a cigarette to unsuspecting friends, to help them grow their circle; you know, increase the demand, so that the supply chain stays strong.
Not too long ago, a rave party was organised in the outskirts of Pune, apparently by a drug-dealer, and it lured over 250 youngsters from Mumbai and Pune, all having cash and the will to have a good time. They were rounded up by the cops, and a few kilograms of stuff, a large stack of alcohol, and a couple hundred condoms, were recovered from the site. The worst aspect of this was that a large number of them were under 18. And, where were all the logistics finalised and people invited? The friendly neighbourhood social community - Orkut. No, we aren't too far behind in HomeLand ourselves.
Ok, now Where Am I Going?
I have no right to comment on what people do, and what they shouldn't. But, if there are laws against some activities, and are widely approved, I believe they were meant to maintain order. And to provide security to the innocent little kids who can be dragged into this way of life, especially when there is a parent who isn't keeping tabs on their offspring. Freedom and having fun, is very good. One empowers you and prepares you for the life ahead, and the other, gives life a certain refreshment to keep you chugging along.
But, there is only one end to all this. A shorter life. Losing touch with life itself, and ending up disillusioned about its purpose. Losing your parents, your family, and ending up with friends that do fill up your holes enough, but are only around as long as you are like them - high.
I am worried, and only because I have now seen with my own eyes how HomeLand is transforming. With all the good that is happening in the country, slowly sneaking up, unnoticed or ignored, behind all the limelight, is this evil, the unmistakable side-effect of growing prosperity. I fear for whether my country will end up being exactly what I hate about StrangeLand. I fear we are too quickly replacing thousands of years of heritage with the brash attitudes of the West, instead of letting the natural confluence of the cultures happen to bring out the best in them. Is HomeLand growing too fast for its own good?
3 comments:
You can't really segregate this on the "land". I believe its more of a personal/individual thing. The "What I like, is what I shall do" thing is not really concerned with some Homeland or Strangeland, but is more of an "I", "me", "myself" thing.
There might be transformations taking place within people back in the Homeland, but those aren't really the transformations in ideas/thoughts, its more of "a process of expressing, venting out or living" things the way they always thought of as per "their" idealogies.
I don't disagree it is not an individual thing. My point is, if it is deemed ok, and no one cares enough on what the children do, the incidence of these activities rises. Statistics will speak for themselves to prove what I mean here - number of drug abuse cases, number of teenage pregnancies/abortions.
HomeLand has 4 times more population than StrangeLand. Then, tell me why these statistics weigh so heavily on the Land with a lower population? It is an individual's ideology, I agree, but isn't it also true that at the young age of teenagers, you want to do what everyone around you is doing? Isn't that really a change in one's ideology, forced by peer pressure? Personal moral grounds might stop a person from taking the wrong step, but how hard is it to change that when you see it all around?
I completely see what you're getting at. I live in Pune, incidentally, and happen to know a lot of the people who were at the rave party that night, some who were locked up and some who managed to get away. I know the world and people you're talking about. I'm much younger than eighteen myself, as are most of the people I know who are doing acid, smoking hash and weed every now and then; and in cases, a lot, lot more.
That established, I'd like to argue that it's not always peer pressure, or even irresponsible or inadequate parenting. I know a lot of kids who have very loving, committed parents, who are definitely a major part of their children's lives, get into almost everything wrong.
The real problem is perception- we, as young, impressionable individuals are being given extremely mixed signals, from every direction. We know how to argue, thanks to a ridiculous education system and generally argumentative and dramatic families (in most cases, not all) and all too easily decide, that our perception of 'right' and 'wrong' need to be re-evaluated. We come to this conclusion in various ways; this differs from person to person, place to place.
In the process or finding new 'right' things, somewhere, we decide it's 'right' to have fun. Now, because we're too immature, (again, mostly,) we end up finding joy in parties, sneaking out, irresponsible sex, drugs, cigarettes, too much alcohol and shisha. We all too quickly justify spending our parents money this way- "they had me, so they need to provide for me, I'd rather be dead anyway", not realizing quite what we're saying.
What I'm getting at is that this isn't an easy thing to blame on one group of people. Sure, adults, and I mean real adults- 35 plus, I would say, do contribute to the problem, and while their contribution is significant, it isn't all there is to it. The kids need to grow up as well.
Correcting this issue is going to take more than just 24/7 monitoring your kids (which is anyway pretty impossible in most cases): it's going to take a deeper, more realistic education, a clear distinction between damaging and helping- too many things are morally gray right now.
Basically, everything we know has to be changed- television, media, school, etcetera, before we can see things differently and more importantly, understand them differently.
Call me pessimistic, but the chances of that happening seem a just little lean to me.
(But possible, of course, and like John Lennon, we can all Imagine.)
P.S. It's nice to know someone's noticing. Thank you.
And I do realize I haven’t backed too much of this up, but that would be easier to do with a little discussion… Which I look forward to. =)
xoxo
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