three generations

'haveli ki umr saath saal' - The aforementioned proverb is an old hindi one, which means that the life of a palace is 60 years. Sixty years comprising three generations, each generation 20 years. In short, it actually means that prosperity in a family runs for three generations, the first is the entreprenurial, the second manages the establishment and the third wastes it away. I cannot help but feel the person who came up with this didn't have a secret urge to be in the third. I do not abide by this, but it does bring a certain point to the table. Three generations for a peasant is different from the three generations of a worker, specially a white collar indian worker, and different still from the three generations of a an establishment with a 'haveli'.

I am a member of the second generation. I am sure everyone talking about himself thinks of himself as being in the second generation, even the third generation :P Thing is there are different scales at work, the upward scale and the downward scale, the scale of prosperity and the scale of gloom. I will be talking about the upward scale, the road to prosperity, if it were or to a better life, a life with more convenience, a life with less troubles to learn from, or perhaps larger troubles to learn from. My growing up, my ghosts, my limitations, much less severe than the generations before me have been those of the generation before me. But still I find myself puzzled in this quarter life as I am sure many would have including all generations. This is where I shall disuss the troubles of my generation.

Parents of my day or people from the first generation were certainly brought up in a different time. They were brought up with 5 cousins for starters. They were brought up in a country much poorer than today (The Nehruvian economy hadn't still been opened, you see). They were married at an age when I hadn't left college yet and had kids at the age when I had just started to "work". In short they had to take care of a lot more than we did. They did so relentlessely for decades, thinking we, their kids would take up the mantle.

We were a generation up to date with what was going on in the world, better trained to walk at pace with it. We saw a world not limited by making it work, not limited by getting by, not limited by the next step. We wanted it all, and never knew what we wanted. We don't feel like scraping for more anymore. We have enough rest and comfort to value rest, value other musings. These things aren't most natural to us, but we yearn for them to explore them. Yet there is a mantle to be taken, the cruel job of continuing. We want to be the third generation. We want to be the generation that gets it all, because only we have tasted mildly what it feels like. We want to be the kids we envied in a way growing up, yet we want to be outcasts all the same. We want to be the righteous kids as well, the performers, the passive audience, everything. But to do all this, we have to throw the mantle. We thus want to be the third generation, the generation with no mantle to carry.

I agree that whatever was presented was excrutiatingly limited in scope, but purposely so. Every generation gets to be the most advanced generation. Are we supposed to bring something to the table, or leave the table. I guess this is predicament of the second generation.

how has internet changed competition?

We are so aware of the "gazillion" ways in which internet has changed our life - from the paradigm shift in the access of information, to the upheavel of all means of communication, to the way we publish, advertize and inform, and even in the way of meeting people and making friendships. Many may argue over the overlooked pitfalls of this and some may defend this new almost completely egalitarian soceity (unless you're living in china, of course). But I am going to try to point out one of the benefits of the internet which I haven't noticed to be discussed much. On how it has changed competition. This is a direct consequence of the consequence of the global village and the enlarged negihbourhood.

The human brain is limited by the soceity structure, prevailing beliefs and views of its time. It is thus only natural that our performance in any subject or field is affected by the people and the performers around us. The internet provides a much wider base for these thoughts. Two simple examples ought to elucidate this. Every sportsman targets the best, or the world record, or at least the front runner in the race. The best possible is limited by the best. It has been noticed across times that specialists in one field have often come from a region. There is always a city famous for its art pieces, a country for its footballers, another for its technology. One may argue the various reasons to explain this, but it cannot be neglected that the presence of prime competition is one of them.

The internet today gives us the ability to truly know the best in the world. A simple search on the ubiquitous google or youtube will most certainly return prompt results of the best performances in any field. One can not only know who has done it, one can know what exactly has been and in fact see it happen on video (the best form of virtual reality present in abundance today). The boundaries of reality in your mind are stretched at a few keystrokes. In case of the highly popular fields, broadcast media did a fairly good job of showing the best, but with the internet, we have access to amazing performances in various arts, science and sports fields all throughout the world. If there is a new design in local resouce access done in a remote location, other people have access to it. It spreads your universe, broadens the spectrum. A budding fighter can see incredible martial arts experts in the world, or a magician can view tricks he has never imagined before. Artists from different cultures can interact as seamlessely with other artists as they were living in the same locality. The wheel already invented has become so much bigger in scope.

There are numerous examples possible of how we are affected and how we can be in terms of competition, but suffice it to say, that it is one of the few things that directly affects what we do. Our creations are limited by our dreams. We dream bigger when more is possible. With the internet, you can see your neighbour's dream in action, in the neighbourhood of the world.