The Siren Call of the Package

By Harish Barthwal: The mad race for profiteering career among the engineering, management and media pass-outs in particular augurs bad for them and for the society at large. In umpteen cases, such children start earning almost equivalent to, if not higher than what the main bread earner of the family is drawing at the fag end of his service period. The high package at the outset upsets the youngster’s frame. He becomes materialistic, with scant regard for kinships, relationships and age. His spending priorities change. He starts believing, one - that a hefty packet does not make him great, he is great; two - that the quality of life is determined by the size of the package; and three - that parents throughout their life, did nothing, they were never wise enough! Why else were they so often subjected to hardships and penury?

Hardly does it occur to the youngsters that shelling out the necessary funds for their education and nurturance was not easy for the parents or guardians, that they sacrificed many of their pleasures in the interest of educating and up keeping their young ones for the good future of their children, that they did not want their offspring to be subjected to hardships which they presumably faced. The worst manifestation of fat package has been a general disregard for age and family ties. Many elders can be witnessed to bemoan in private, if not publicly, the impunity and arrogance with which the young one talks, acts or behaves with those who so long held him part & parcel of their heart.

The sensible elders are learning to bear with this unsavory truth; else they would break down. The wisdom perhaps lies in accepting that each person has come to this earth with a distinct body and mind, and after a certain age, it is always advisable to let him or her a free play unless your intervention is overtly solicited. The bliss of life lies in harmony, and not in issuing public notifications disowning the son and daughter-in-law from movable and immovable assets. The best recourse to peace and harmony in the sunset of life is, reverting to take care of one’s own self now, a task so essential, yet remaining neglected for so long.

Harish Barthwal is a freelance journalist. Email: teenbarthwal@gmail.com.