Is our life worse than the life in our Dad's generation???

Quality of life does not depend on how much you can eat but on how much you can digest. And however comic it may sound, I mean it literally. Here are some of the reasons why I believe my life is not better than generation dad and generation grand dad. My dad use to cycle a distance of 18 kilometers everyday till he purchased his first vehicle at the age of 28. The idea of just commuting for 18 kilometers even on a bike makes me feel tired. I agree that the life expectancy and average life have gone up but the reasons behind this success remain largely medical advancements and not the growth of our health.

Taking a metaphorical meaning of digestion, I’d like to tell that the education has taken a very different role in our life; the motive of cognitive growth has given a way to narrow goals of using education just as a means to some ends. The problem arising out of this is summed up beautifully by T.S. Elliot when he says,

Where is the life we have lost in living?

Where is the wisdom, we have lost in knowledge;

Where is the knowledge- we have lost in information?

Another crucial thing that we have not been able to carry from our past generations is the simplicity in outlook of the life. There were far bigger problems than financial recessions to terrorism, - some people of generation grand dad came to India from Pakistan while trains were being burnt, they left everything they had, and yet started a new life as if nothing bad had ever happened. Then came generation dad, they too had their share of troubles starting from a sluggish economy to wars, and emergency of course. They were the people who restored and protected the democracy of our country in most critical times. They did all this without uttering a word. They could do this perhaps because they did not know the words like frustration, depression and that we know. They did this because they do not blow their problems out of proportion as we do.

Another reason why we have lost the simplicity is that we have become too obsessed with the narrow idea of success, there are so many among us who are caught in this vicious circle of illusory success. The means like money, machines and other life comforting instruments have become ends of our lives. The idea of simple living and high thinking is being forgotten fast. Repercussions of this are seen in growing number of students committing suicides each year.

It is easy to pass the buck of responsibility to the previous generations but let us take it, that ---

The time is out of joint, oh cursed spite,

That ever I was born to set it right.

I am sure that by moving closer to the roots we will surely set it right.