The Times, They Are A-Changin’ | Flash Post 353

Button, looking out of the airplane window en route to Kolkata, the sparkling fluffy white clouds caught my attention. I also saw clouds that resembled lambs, human faces, different animals and even an angel with wings stretched from one end of the sky to the other.

You’ve described seeing all the above and more in one of your earlier posts en route to the same city. Or, have you forgotten?

Hear me out, Button.

Sure.

The simple joys of this activity does not exist any more. Some throwback memories I have are of me sitting on the window ledge of our home in Beniapara on a rainy day, crafting  paper boats and setting them asail on the water-logged streets of the Kolkata by-lane and follow its trail as it sailed away or drowned.

You have some fascinating childhood memories!

I do. Or our summer vacations when we would travel by train, followed by a bus ride and further followed by a bullock-cart ride to a remote village in Putimari in Nadia district of West Bengal.

Your maternal grandparents lived there!

Arre, you remember?

How could I not?

I also remember sitting by the window of the train, eating banana after banana only to fling their peel out of the train window and see them whizz past. I think my father went broke buying baskets of bananas for me! Mind you, Narendra Modiji wasn’t around to impose his Swachh Bharat scheme then or I could have been in trouble!

I think I know where this is going!

Where?

Where our children and their children find their thrill snapping selfies, surfing the Internet and uploading their pictures on Instagram.

On second thoughts, what’s wrong with that? Our generation explored their thrills. Our parents’ generation explored theirs while the millennials are exploring theirs! And future generations will explore theirs.

Absolutely. And, we are in no position to be critical or judgemental about their preferences or what they wear, eat, movies and television and streaming shows they watch, music they listen to and how they wish to live their lives.

True.

Women have actually risen far above their preceding counterparts achieving much more by way of their careers, choice of partners, whether they want to smoke and drink and live their lives on their terms.

As a result, they are coming out stronger, willing to counter every challenge that comes their way. And succeeding which is the best part.

Lesson learnt is that one generation is not better or worse than their preceding or succeeding generation. Each generation finds its own comfort level, its own truths, its own choices, its own likes and dislikes and tries to live their lives as best as they can.