Our Generation Is The Last

 

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Synopsis

 Yes , for all those who were born in 1950's  or 1969's and would live for another 10/20 years will constitute the last generation .


Last generation who had walked upto their schools on foot .


Last generation who stayed at homes where there were no water supply and water had to be fetched from a community tap downstairs .


Last generation who has seen open lavatories since flushed latrines took sometime to come .


We are the last generation who sat in the schools with no fans and sweating in summers but studying .


We are the last generation who stayed in joint families and were very comfortable with the love of so many of our uncles and aunts around us .


We proabably will be the last generation,  who had only one 60 watt bulb run on Direct current in a room with Direct current or many poor students studied under a street light .


There were no water coolers and air conditioners came in much later in middle class homes .


Life has changed in all these respects now and our children or our grandkids would find it difficult to believe by all these things .

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Schooling and learning

                                                                           


Now a days children travel in air conditioned buses in all seasons and study in air conditioned rooms at school .


 Middle  class families send their children by school buses which are quite common these days and buy bicycles or even small automatic two wheelers for their children to go to their schools .


Poor children may use bicycles for commuting to their schools or still walk long distances to their institutions .


Today's children would find it difficult to imagine that their parents went to the schools by foot in all seasons ,whether during torturing months of summer in May and June or during rainy season of July and  August ,  carrying umbrellas or their raincoats and reaching their schools half drenched .


They would never imagine how their parents sat in the classrooms without a ceiling fan. Sweating all the time, Or in severe winters , wearing sweaters woven by their mothers and sat shivering in the classrooms .


Now a days children wear ready made shirts and pants and sweaters and Blazers for their schools .


They will find it difficult to realise that their parents used wooden boards ( Called TAKHTIS) and pens made out of bamboo to write initially or 

on a slate ( Black square made of slate material enclosed by a wooden  frame . ) with a white material called SALETI ( just like a chalk , but it didn't dirty our hands ) and it could be erased with ones hands later on .


Their parents never used ball points  which are prevalent these days .


A good hand writing carried five extra marks in a written examination .Their parents used Holders and g-nibs for writing in English on a four lined note book ,  specially  meant for writing in Engilsh .


They used flat metallic nibs for writing in Hindi on a two lines note book maeant for writing in Hindi or in any other local language , which in our case was Punjabi .


The local languages across India vary from region to region .


School masters were highly strict  with the students,if they ever  got distracted ,a cane was used by them or they spoke in rough language to their erring students .Standing on a bench or becoming a MURGA ( COCK ) by sitting down with one's hands on his/her  ears through the legs ) was a normal punishment for not bringing your  homework done or doing any mischiefs in the classroom .


Nowadays , parents file a complaint to the school principal , if a particular teacher is harsh with their wards .

Only punishment these days is to talk to the wards' parents .


People born during 1950/60's would be the last generation , 

very different from their children and their grandchildren ,now .



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Water Supply

 Now a days children carry water bottles from their homes to their schools .Watered bottle has become quite common which can be purchased .


Today's children cannot imagine that their parents used to drink water from normal taps or even from a hand pump .


And water was reasonably clean and we never fell sick after drinking it .


My mother used to fetch water upstairs from a community tap downstairs .


There was no piped water or taps in our homes  .


Later on we kept a servant who used to fetch water for us .


I saw water taps and 24x7 water supply at our home in 1962 , for the first time , when I was ten years old at Chandigarh.


People used to Cool the drinking water  in MATKAS( Earthen Pots ) or SURAHIS ( earthen pots with a long neck to drink water from it ) .While travelling by railways people used to carry a SURAHI with them ,


Our children have seen refrigerators which have become quite common , but I saw my first refrigerator making a huge noise , at my Dad's Uncle home who was very wealthy man those days during 1950/60's.


We bought our first refrigerator in 1982/3 at  Chandigarh .


Long ago ,a few people came from Netherlands and collected students from high level schools and children from Government schools to enact a play on WATER .My son provided background music to them .The play was themed at "commercialisation of water ."


How business men would exploit the situation by selling drinking water ?


It was during the year 2000 .


By 2019 ,it has become a roaring business sector in India .


Manufacturing so called mineral water or drinking water .


Un ethical manufacturers fill water from a tap and sell it as mineral water in the market .


So , within the last seven decades drinking water manufacturing has become a full fledged industry ,


While travelling by good trains like Shatabdis in India , water bottles are supplied to all passengers 


They are advised to destroy the bottles after getting down ,  since UN ethical guys would collect the bottles and fill them up with a tap water .


At all Railway station platforms ,bus-stops or on many other local shops bottled water is always available in India .


We ,too ,prefer drinking bottled water and rarely drink water from a tap .


A water cleaning filter is installed at all good homes in India for drinking water .





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Ready made garments

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Entertainment

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Communication

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