People of every generation, particularly the land’s senior citizens, can be heard expressing their disillusionment about the people of their succeeding generation, the section of youth in particular, on a multitude of counts, specially their disrespect and disfavour of virtually every aspect of the land’s time-honoured customs and traditions. The remarks by the elderly, downgrading the ways of life of the young in society, obviously, doesn’t go down well in the latter’s camp. Sociologists describe generation (equivalent to peelige in Kannada) as all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. The average period generally considered to be about thirty years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults and begin to have children of their own. Going by the above description of the term generation, post-independent India has already hosted two generations and a third is well on way. The gap between the promises being made by different political parties with an eye on winning at the hustings and execution of the key policies needs to be guarded against further widening.

While inter-generation contrasting features of aspirations of people and their chosen routes for a lived reality are bound by the many compulsions of their periods, given the steady rise in the country’s headcount and disproportionate rise in resources supporting life, the set of compulsions is witnessing their compulsive nature, unlike in the past when the relation between needs and resources was in the zone of comfort.

The profile of the present generation’s youth in particular is adorable or not has a great deal to do with the extent to which their counterpart of an earlier generation kept vigil as mentors. In the same breath, one is prompted to argue that if all was well with past generations, then the mentors of successive generations must have played their part pro-actively in moulding the growing children into youth first and adulthood subsequently. The mix of backgrounds of Indians is a lot more different than most other regions of the world due to reasons not far to seek. Added to this, the vacuum in leadership to keep the society on track is glaring, as observed by many in the circles of knowledgeable persons.

The sections of society whose young members are doing well in life and contributing to the wellness of the nation through their exemplary work culture are the true role model for the rest. The task of preventing the country’s youth from going astray calls for commitment in generating a resurgent generations over years ahead.