Tat’s empowerment

The meaning of empowerment changes over generations. People naturally react to circumstances; these shape their outlook, and their actions change accordingly. The sense of being and becoming, for young people especially, depends on their environment.

About four generations ago, India was a colony, struggling to throw off the yoke of servitude. The environment was uncertain, the people powerless. However, the the charismatic leaders they followed, united the young and the old as one in the independence movement. Many were child foot soldiers imbued with the fervour of patriotic freedom, unafraid to be arrested, tortured and imprisoned for their social activism. 

Innumerable numbers of these young people martyred themselves during the freedom struggle. Empowered by ideals, they sacrificed their all for the cause deemed greater than the self. Their selfless dedication to the motherland brought independence to the region against the odds. 

 

The environment appears so much more controllable today, only a few generations later. Advancement of technology moulds the youthful outlook. Young people attune to the technology rather than to the collective around them. Virtual reality trumps the immediate external environment. Technology unites young men and women of global diversity through social networking.  

Online trends that go viral attract huge following, and thence is the attraction to body art. The word tattoo has Polynesian origins – tatau, tatu, or tattaw. Among tribal cultures, of this region, those in Africa and elsewhere, the tattoo symbolises a rite of passage. It proclaims to the world that the individual has stepped into adulthood, and is ready to assume the requisite responsibilities. 

It is doubtful that most young people in India have adult reasoning behind their choices of design. Although some may be in homage to the charismatic leaders of yesteryear, social activism also is far from their minds. In reality, they say, the pain is empowering. It is a rite of passage of sorts, to do as their celebrity idols do in promoting their self online. In virtual reality, the intricacies of designing are important. It enables them to stand out from the crowd on the global platform.

There-and-then, freedom of the collectivist nation was cause. In today’s individualistic world here-and-now, the cause is freedom of self-expression.
The previous generations may perceive the youth isolated, inward looking. Not introspective, but rather self-interested, with shrunken horizons and alienation from traditions. But, the question is should they blame the present generation for the outcomes of the technological developments they themselves initiated? 

Game changer

This young man I know looks disheveled with unshaven face and bloodshot eyes. Sleepless nights? I inquire. He confesses to feeling the toll of nightly wakes these days. But no honeymoon here! Blessed with a beautiful baby, all is well, yet now he’s losing track of whether he’s on his head or his heels!

I’m a tad gleefully at the travails of brand new fatherhood. He now walks in the careworn shoes of generations past – parents, grandparents, and feels the lows they had with him that must never have occurred before. A rude shock, though, for him to realize he no longer is the centre of that universe.

Change in the new mother is dramatic. Overnight she transforms from wifey into somebody strange - the new mother transfixed with child. Awash with the maternity hormones, her system resets, restructuring her universe to be so. That then on, the needs of that wailing “bundle of joy” shall take precedence. Thus, Nature ensures infant survival.

Suddenly, from alpha to ordinary! The young man nods. That I experience every day, he rues. It is important for the young couple to rediscover romance in their partnership. But to put others first, is an invaluable lesson of maturity, many men need to learn. I’m sure that this new father secretly resents the carpet being yanked away from beneath his feet. Still he’s lucky to be human; male insects have it far worse. Were he a praying mantis, his head might have been yanked right off when usefulness was done!

Blurred lines

History has always been the bulwark of our culture. Through the ages, we reference a then-and-there we never really experienced to explain actions or rationalize happenings.

That we descend from the gods… that our civilization is the oldest… that in ancient times democracy existed … that over centuries, we withstood the onslaught of other cultures… that monarchies, colonies, and dictatorships passed on… that on the strength of our traditions, we faced diversity but never lost nationhood.

From it we draw meaning for our existence. We do our best to live up to the grandeur and the superhuman heroics. The lines blur between real and fantasy in the stuff of legends we know as traditional heritage.

Then virtual reality happened. Generation Next took to the change like duck to water. History creates at the fingertips as the online transcends all else.

Descend from the gods… assume civilizations of any age… withstand the onslaught of other cultures… raise and demolish democracies, monarchies, colonies, dictatorships instantly in the here-and-now experience. 

The Internet fulfills networking needs and gives meaning to existence. They live through it the images of grandeur, of superhuman heroics, the stuff of legends. 

The interface enables 3d worlds so more real than reality that the lines between blur. In the virtual world of continually streaming information, diversity flows into the living room. It is the new culture the generation connects to, to explain actions or rationalize happenings. The old moulds are broken...Is this evolution?