Gerald D'Cunha

“Out of the sighs of one generation are kneaded the hopes of the next.” Machado de Assis T he world always belongs to the Generation Next… That’s why, it’s said – ‘Life Beckons’ … Meaning, ‘Life Calls’! One of the things, I have been ‘consciously’ trying to do, is to keep quiet and actively listen to my 27-year-old son as he speaks. It doesn’t mean, that I know nothing, or much less than him. It simply means, that the future no more belongs to my generation… I may live in a denial, I may suffer from my inflated ego… but, if I am honest enough, I would realize, that my time is over… and, it’s over to the Generation Next… A defeatist attitude? No, a realistic one, Sir! The child will always be the father of the Man… Remember writing your school essay? Most of us never understood what that saying meant. I think, we still do not have a clue! 2020 – on whose eve Amitabh Bachchan had tweeted urging us not to get too excited about as there was only ...

A friend of mine gave me a lift just a while ago. I was meeting him after a long time. So, I asked him, “Is everything fine? I am seeing you after a very long time.” The gentleman, who is in his mid-thirties, is well-placed in a multinational company. His work involves extensive travel and use of technology. “Parents’ health issues and my work pressure,” the gentleman explained, “It has been tough to cope with.” I had seen his father and mother both shrinking gradually. Barely a few months ago, when I saw his dad, I felt very sorry… each step looked like a massive milestone! After that, I had not been seeing the gentleman’s parents… “They are not able to move out,” the gentleman told me, today. Our conversation took a turn from there. “That generation did not have the kind of life style we are having,” the gentleman told me, “We all will start shrinking right in our thirties and forties!” I nodded my head! None of us – I said ‘none’…. Neither a k...