Plight Of Millennials

 Plight of Millennials

We are the Millennials—that’s what my son emphasized today, who is Gen Z.

So, what is that? The dictionary or Google meaning, indeed, is just some text. But the psychological meaning of my millennial generation is something vast.

I feel we are caught between the Boomers (our parents' generation) and Gen Z.

The Boomers inherited the freedom struggle, 100 years of British exploitation, partition, and wars.

They didn’t face a survival crisis, but they faced the burden and expectations of seniors to work for family honor, religion, culture, and a better standard of living.
The same elements were passed on to us as Millennials. India in the 1980s was with its doors closed, living in the cocoon of its own culture on this planet—deliberately or timidly trying to stay away from the rest of the world.

What is different is unacceptable; that was the thought process until someone somewhere opened the doors of economic liberalization.
Technology was brought in, choices in commodities were offered, and different perspectives and thoughts were introduced in work culture, manufacturing, and governance.
But still, we Indians were shy towards accepting new things, preferring to stick to our age-old thought processes, cultures, and rituals, with a fear again that it might change the very basic genetics of India.

So we Millennials were standing at the fence, ready to cross over but still clinging to the old inherited Indian culture.

And on the other side, our Gen Z—already beyond this fence—has been galloping towards technological advancement and the AI age, not bothering to take us along with them.
The Gen Z thoughts go beyond religion, caste, culture, and rituals. They are focused on adapting to the fast-paced, changing world. They are not facing any existential crisis, survival crisis, nor the dilemma of whether to cross the fence or not.

Isn’t our Gen Z manifesting the real meaning of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam?