We may a developing country, but we have a huge religious heritage.  We do not believe that everything is based on money alone. A huge number of Indians are now more hardworking than ever before, and this is reflected in the growing number of innovations that are going on in our own country, now considered to be one of the fastest growing economies of the world.

However, increasing urbanization, spread of education, and emergence of a huge middle class has its own quota of problems, chief of which is the growing tendency of today's youth to totally dismiss anything that is not in tune with their Smartphone, Iphone, laptop, What's up and Skype culture, as "outdated".

Respect for elders, taking part in all religious functions, making spirituality an important aspect of life, dressing appropriately for all religious functions and strictly observing rituals of all communties, and the like, is now becoming a thing of the past.

The reasons are many.  In their quest to provide the best for their children, in the urban areas, the rat race is on, and money making is  a big exercise.  The man and the woman are totally busy in their own world, and the infants often grow up in the nursing care of the third persons, often called as "ayas".  These women have a significant bearng on young children who begin to understand things when they reach the age of four.  The fierce independence with which they grow up, often results in an attitude of "me, my world, and no one else", and parents are totally at a loss, as to how to control such children.  

The shopping malls are the utlimate expression of this firm setting of values, beliefs and attitudes.  The children often demand that they need certain things, and once done, they are happy.  If the parents show any resistance, all hell breaks loose.

The peer pressure is another big problem.  Even middle class children tend to behave like those from rich families.  Yet another problem is the huge influence of television and the social media, where crass commercializaton simply takes over.  

The net result is there for all to see.  This problem is not peculiar to the metros.  It has spread to cities like Coimbatore, Salem, Hyderabad, Tirupathi, Madurai, Indore and just about everywhere.  

It is not uncommon for mothers to be told to "mind your business" when they would request young girls, as young as twelve, to wear glass bangles or put on a particular dress, that is part and parcel of a religious function, back home in their native place.  Or in a wedding.  It is not uncommon for young men to say "open the bottle" even in weddings and embarass the elders.  

Smoking is so common, as is making fun of young girls and pulling the legs of middle aged women.  

So, what do we do? 

The answers are as complex as ever.  

One of the important things that should be done is to simply pack off the children  to be with grandparents in their native places, during every summer vacation.  Since these villages or small towns have cultures where everything is not lost, the children will learn to be more tolerant and will rub shoulders with children from other families.  In a different setting, they might and will, feel the need to appreciate the finer aspects of different cultures. 

The parents can also join them, whenever and wherever it is possible, to enable the children be at home, in a different culture.  

Secondly, the parents should ensure that the children positively understand that life is not easy, and should be very strict in not giving the children, more money than what they need, at any point in time.  This is all the more important, as attitudes get their bases firmly implanted only on the basis of money.

This "am safe" feeling often leads to arrogance, and to very bad behavior as well.  The Tamil film "Paapanasam", in the recent past, was one classic, which reminded parents as to what will happen in rich families, if the child does not understand good values.  The boy develops the dirtiest habbit of doing the filming of a young girl having her bath, and then threatens her that he would put that on Facebook.  This is not at all uncommon.  The gril concerned gives a nasty blow to the young man on his head and the guy dies.  The film is simply excellent as everything was shown so subtly.

So, parents need to be very careful here. Money cannot, and will not, be the solution to satisfy today's children.

Thirdly, the parents should be careful to make it a point to constantly take the children to temples, recite all mantras, take part in religious functions and so on, right from the age of three.  Simply leaving them to the care of the ayas will do no good to their future.  Only this constant drill can make a difference.

This drill can be seen, even today, in many Tamil Brahmin families.  The men even today, wear earrings in both ears, in many small towns, and observe all the religious rituals, even when their own children would have settled in the USA.  These children, even if based in USA, recite the Rudram and Jamakkam, the ultimate form of meditation.  In fact, the Americans are now learning these mantras.

Fourthly, what can be done is to have huge awareness programs on all aspects of Indian culture, in every school, and totally avoild the film music and dirty film dances, that have now gone back to crass commercialism.  It should be noted that simply superb films like "Paapanasam" have also succeeded in the box office, and blaming the audiences will not work.  Our cinema producers also have to wake up and do something.

Such appreciation of culture will help our children to fall back on the finer aspects of our cutlure -- tolerance, helping others, taking part in the sufferings of others and so on-- and lead normal lives. 

There is nothing wrong with Smartphones, Iphones, Facebook, and the like.  In fact, Facebook has infact saved hundreds of precious lives, as blood gets flown to different places.  Heart transplants are increasingly going on in Chennai, and Facebook is in the thick of this transformation.

However, these should not become an obsesion with our younger generation.  Parents, teachers, educationists and eveyone else needs to chip in and do something. Otherwise, the individualism will simply lead us to disaster of unimaginable proportions and the younger generation will simply disintegrate as the years go by.

• Written by ABSIVAKUMAR.
• In category General Reference.
• 9 years ago.

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