Where are we headed ?

[prashanthchengi]

Advertisements, for most of us, are those annoying things that interrupt us as we are watching our favorite program on the television.
It's quite rare that we get to see an ad which is so entertaining that we don't really seem to mind the interruption, but it's all too common to come across ads that irritate us.  One ad which gets my goat is of a

Comments

[peeyush]

Idea Ads are pathetic. Earlier I used to think that Abhishek Bachchan is at fault but now i know that their creative team is mentally ill.

As for the people/society/generation thingy, we soon shall be confronting a lot which is a demanding one. But that's ok. These are transition times. Different breeds will keep coming up and we will have to coexist with them.

[prashanthchengi]

There is no doubt that the ads are pathetic, and that is sad. Ironically though, they seem to correctly reflect many aspects of the reality as we know it. That, is tragic.

[deponti]

As usual, very well-written post. It made me sad because I thought "outdating" dates WAS outdated...but I find the same restrictions in your generation as well! I think much of the sexually-obsessive and (sometimes) perverted behaviour has its roots in the severe repression of the sexual and romantic urges of young adults in Indian culture (all over India, I find it's the same.)

But of course, you are talking about whining and easy gratification, not this....I don't think, in this regard, things are very different from what they've always been. The Mighty Middle Class still does not pamper its children.

[prashanthchengi]

You know, I wonder if the great middleclass is finally disappearing, leaving helpless, clueless parents, and whiny, selfish kids in it's wake.

[deponti]

I don't think so..every generation is convinced that their job is more difficult than that of the last, and that the next generation is whiny and needy :)

[prashanthchengi]

And if that conviction is indeed true, we really are not new generations but merely a study in degeneration. That is a rather awful thought, I must admit.

[asakiyume]

It certainly paints the ad in a different light if you see the parents as the providers of the phone and the car--as aiding and abetting each boy's pursuit of the girl... especially if dating is still not universally accepted. (But even if it were universally accepted, what sort of victory is it to win over the girl if it's not by your own accomplishments... other than the accomplishment of being able wheedle material items out of your parents?)

More fundamentally, I get depressed by the fact that material goods seem to be seen as universally the way to "get" a girl. This is definitely true here in the United States too. I guess it reflects reality to a large extent, but to paraphrase Martin Luther King, I wish we saw more things that showed a woman choosing a man based on the content of his mind, not his (or his parents') wallet.

[pondhopper]

You just wrote my reply.
:)
I agree 100%!

[prashanthchengi]

It is rather depressing. I happened to see this rather young couple at a cafeteria, the other day and hear a part of their conversation. The girl was thanking the guy for getting her laptop fixed. When she enquired how much it had cost, the guy just smiled it away, uttering some sweet nothing. I remember the scene quite vividly as I thought right away that it had been the boy's hapless father who had footed the bill of repairs, and not the boy who had so magnanimously refused to accept money for what had not been a gift. If chivalry is chargeable to ones parents (or to anybody else), it's not really chivalry, or would you say that it was the thought that counted ? The boy's dad was a chump anyway!! The girl probably left thinking that her boyfriend was such a fine gentleman, the boy himself probably felt good about it, and heck, it didn't cost him anything! Talk about free lunches!!!

[anonymous]

Like in every generation there are good seeds and bad. I have seen college kids joining NGOs and volunteering for orphanages and old age homes. I have seen them working in cafe chains and supermarket checkout counters. I think sidelining an entire generation because of a stupid ad is a wee bit of overreaction. Yes they have more privileges than you did, just like you have more privileges than your dad did. And your dad probably feels that most of his generation-next is nothing but whiners :)
~Harish