For A Change...

Adapting to a changing situation is a big ask for anyone, and the relationship between such an ask and the age groups we are in is pretty interesting. Generally speaking, the potential for fitting oneself to any change is very strong in the younger age groups as compared to the older ones. But as in everything, we do have exceptions to this belief too.

I still remember when my father got to buy a mobile phone (that was exactly ten years after I had started using one) - he seemed so excited to use it but could hardly operate it on his own. He would switch it off, carefully place it in the carton and lock it in his cupboard. One day he asked me to help him out with it. I could not expect a 1943-born person who had used a landline phone throughout his life to handle a mobile phone with ease. So I walked him through the ‘workable’ options, i.e. making and receiving calls and sending and receiving messages. Adding new contacts was also a feature I stressed upon so that he could come out of his ‘habit’ of listing down phone numbers in a diary. But that did not seem to work smooth as far as his mobile phone ‘orientation’ was concerned. He would ask me again and again either for adding a new contact or for sending a message. I felt like the Mathematics tutor who would feel annoyed on being asked to solve the same Unitary Method problem several times. But, at the very next moment, I could place myself into my father’s shoes and understand his genuine inabilities. He was trying his level best to acclimatize to a situation wherein a sense of technology was considered to be a prerequisite. How could I expect a person who had dealt with hard bound files, stacks of papers and pens in his office to know about softwares, hardwares or Bluetooth? All I could do was ask him to concentrate as I demonstrated one more round of all the basic mobile phone applications. As of now he may not be well versed with all the features but very recently I got to receive a ‘Happy New Year’ message from his phone which made me feel ecstatic. At times, he reaches out for his diary to jot down any new phone number ‘temporarily’ unaware of the fact that he can save it in his mobile phone.

On the flipside, one my cousin brothers, a sixth standard student, often updates me regarding the new computer games available in the market, the crack codes for many games and the forthcoming technologies that are going to ‘rock’ the world. He is highly techno-savvy and a big time computer maniac. For me, he represents the modern generation aptly - Ten years down the line I can imagine him carrying an undefined TB (Terabyte) Laptop loaded with all possible computer games and softwares, uttering highly technical lingo. He is not averse to gulp and learn more in order to match his footsteps with the ever changing and dynamic environment.

The common factor in both the instances above is a ‘change’ that is driving both of them to act. One is finding it a bit difficult to adjust to the situation while the other is highly adaptive and responsive to it. Relating change to a mobile phone or technology is just an example. Change can be symbolic in terms of any imaginable thing or issue. The generation gap is a given thing, but a matured mind often blocks itself to transformations and renewal of conventional norms. As mentioned earlier, we do have exceptions to this tenet- we may notice senior citizens curbing the age-old ideas, happily accepting re-definitions and easily fitting to it, sometimes even better as compared to their younger counterparts. Our backgrounds, daily lives and habits are highly responsible in determining the extent of flexibility we can display in terms of welcoming a change. However, there are no winners or losers in this constant ‘adaptation’ game because we view life from different perspectives. Mere and sudden changes may or may not affect us. As long as we are in full control of our lives, we can overlook such changes and continue extracting more out of them.