Listen to elders
 My
senior colleague was commenting on one of the articles I have written.
Out of nowhere he recalled his childhood days. My colleague is very much
senior than me both age and profession experience: being 50 plus.
He was explaining about the stage play experience in his days.
“We were friends, all girls and boys. We held our hands together, but
our affairs didn’t go beyond that.” Well, I have no access to verify
this. If I ask one of his peers, he would definitely corroborate with
the statement.
“See how these young brats today behave. I recently went to a movie
with my wife and children. I was shocked to see what was going on in the
boxes.” He had displeasure in his tone.
“Things were not this bad in our days.” Now that is something to
which our ears are quite tuned. That is one thing. I continued to listen
to my colleague. “We used to watch all those plays like Sinhabahu. How
many people have read Sinhabahu today? Some people read because it’s in
the syllabus.”
I have a question. Should the younger generation always take up what
old people have read? Perhaps we might expect this same thing from our
next generation too - poor fellows, by the way. We might need our young
chaps to read Dan Brown, Ken Follett, Jeffrey Archer, Harold Pinter etc
- well, I think Shakespeare will survive even then, as he did for
centuries.
Every generation has every right to toy with nostalgia. But I don’t
think they should take it for granted that they should enforce it on the
next generation too. I wonder about this thing, and most of the times I
think we would do the same thing when we are the ‘old generation’.
Perhaps our next generation would not read hard cover at all. They would
just read it through on their palmtops - you don’t have to be Arthur C.
Clarke to prophesy this phenomenon. This is what you can obviously
foresee in the near future.
When I said Buthsarana will turn useless in future, an elderly
relative responded to me in a you-don’t-know-any-damn-thing tone. He
went on to recite some verses, which he by-hearted for one of his exams,
to prove their universal quality. Well the verses have a universal
appeal, and I like those too. But that doesn’t mean it would appeal to a
modern generation, unless someone takes steps to rewrite or reinterpret
it in a modern dialect. It is not preservation I talk of.
There may be a few people even in younger generation - probably some
over-the-hills like me - who would still love the old language in those
classics. There may be a few who are interested in various researches of
that language. But that is a book written for the benefit of the
society. If the society cannot get the benefit what’s the use of that
classic, pray tell me.
If those few who are interested in old classics can reshape them in a
skilful way then that would benefit the society. But then they should be
remembered too. I know there are a few in our generation who make use of
those. But still what do elders want? They want the old one as it is -
good for them, alone.
Well back to my senior colleague, who said they did not go beyond
holding hands. I am not surprised to hear him say he was shocked to see
what is going on in the boxes. I listen to it in a different wavelength.
What you can do in the box cannot be done in a stage audience, honestly
speaking.
The bottom line: Perhaps our elders indirectly lament about what they
were deprived of in the past. It may apply to any kind of elder
generation, well including the modern younger generation who would turn
old in a few decades. [email protected] |
