I have been regular to bemoan the attitude of youth and the generation next.
My complaints have been that, even the best and brightest of them want to change the world immediately. When I say immediate, it is like in the next 3 and half hours!!!
They are impatient and come out as arrogant. Another accusation is their shameless pursuit of output, we cry that they don’t seem to appreciate the journey, they only value the destination.
But worst of all, what I hate is their NEED to be cool, to be chilled out. Their coolness seemed to me, fake and hypocritical…
But all it took was a google meet with few of them today to know that there are more than 'few good young men'out there. Definitely better than what we were about 25 years back.
To define the 'we'……..
We graduated out from one of the premier institutes, it was from one of the remotest location in India. We boasted for years to our wives and close friends of our outlook was broad by our stint in college, interacting with different cultures and languages.
After 25 years we were joining hands by creating a registered NGO to provide helping hands to our batchmates and society in large.
Even before the NGO had been registered formally, we took pride in our ability connect to each other, use our relationship to raise funds and to distribute to the needy. From Kerala to Kolkotta to Assam, we have been actively supporting the needy during the dark hours of flood and other natural calamities.
Finally we wanted to help out, in and around our alma mater. The place being in North East has been neglected and we are all moot witness to this neglect, during our stint there.
The 'we' , 25 years back had few hackneyed guidelines for coolness too.
1. Able to score high in semester exam, without obvious slogging.
2. To be able to have a clear voice and reasoning during a sober adda or a drunken incoherent discussion.
3. Able to hold the 7th drink without a slur.
4. Wise cracks at will.
5. Proficient with both old hindi songs and heavy metal. Great speakers kept in large mud pots back in our rooms was a must.
6. Also being a kingpin in winning the students election, mostly grouped by regions/ language, helped.
Almost like in a patriarchal society , the senior batches had the coolest guys and the mantle was passed on, but discreetly. There was no award ceremony were the knighthood was done. But all of us knew and secretly all of us wanted to be cool.
Pushing back to present, during a recent google meet, we got to meet the present students in our college, NIT Silchar. They narrated to us their charitable acts.
They had organised themselves to conduct regular classes for the kids from the neighboring villages. 200 odd students from class 6 to 10, flocked to our alma mater to be taught basics of multiplication tables to trigonometry.
They called this 'Gyan Sagar' foundation. They had a neat organisation structure around this with leaders and followers working selflessly to contribute back to society.
One of the practical questions we had, was how sustainable this model was, maybe a few would volunteer this year, but what about the next few years.
Both, soon , most of us hearing them talk suddenly realized, that they have a self-sustaining model, times have changed and so have the barometers of coolness.
God Bless
Cheers….
Manesh Alias
Alumni NIT Silchar 1996
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