The greater part of the land’s population, currently estimated to be on the cusp of crossing the figure of 135 crore, comprising those born in the 1990s, has reached a stage in their life representing a mix of capabilities to survive ranging from very poor to excellent, due to factors not-all-that unclear. We are well into a period of reckoning what led to this mix, apart from oversimplifying the situation as due to the yawning gap between the haves and have-nots in the land. While the former category can fend for themselves, facing innumerable odds in their life’s journey, they owe to themselves and to the latter category to cherish them and extend timely inputs amounting to nurturing the next generation in order to achieve sustainable social stability and economic progress.

Perceiving the task of nurturing more than one crore children joining the existing mass year-on-year by ensuring adequate food, mark the word adequate, meaning both quantity and quality, guiding them from learning the 3-Rs before they take their due place in the nation’s work-force has its roots in cherishing the generation next.

All seemed well in society, as the seniors among the senior citizens of Mysuru and elsewhere can vouch, as long as they played their mentor-role as it were by which the generation following them was not worse off. That link now stands snapped resulting in despair among citizens. One cannot be blind to the fact that the country hosts institutions in different regions in which students are in excellent care, but considering the dimension of the task of nurturing a generation, such institutions are like oasis in deserts. In this backdrop, the place for and role of mentors of the genre of Mysuru Thathayya of yesteryears and his ilk come resounding in our minds.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast, as the 18th century English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) wrote. A top executive of a corporate in the country calling for closing the gap between schooling and skills needed has only echoed an already much-hyped slogan. Success in this task can see light of day only if we keep the political heavy-weights at bay, given their fixed agenda in life namely “make hay while the sun shines” (carve personal wealth out of public funds).