Dear Future

Dear Future,

It’s been a while since we talked. How’s everything? How’s the weather? Do humans still let themselves be fooled by you?

The weather here is wonderful these days. Wonderfully toasty, though it might have something to do with global warming. When asked about the reason, everyone has an answer on similar lines– its man-made; a result of man’s selfish and greedy motives. Humans have depleted the abundant natural resources to make their own lives easy, invariably making it harder. Do humans in your time think the same?

Kids of today are a new lot. They want to achieve greater things, scale newer heights. The millennial wants to do more, be more.  An eight-year old wants to become an engineer. When asked why? “I want to design cars because I love them” pat comes the reply. Another wants to be a principal. It is a sign of changing times, where career fields are not limited to engineering and medicine. It doesn’t mean that some 5 year olds still don’t want to become doctors when they grow up. Someone’s got to cure the sick, after all. But what binds the children together, however varied their aspirations may be is a common love for candies, chocolates and play time. Some things never change.

Parents disagree. In their childhood, a healthy twenty-thirty years back, play time meant languid hours spent on playgrounds and fields chasing dragonflies and climbing trees to enjoy the juiciest produce. They were free birds, enjoying each moment as it comes and lived in an environment with a strong sense of community.

Today, technology has isolated individuals from the community so you will see kids glued to the glaring laptops tablets phones and televisions. Play time outdoors has translated to playing tennis and football on screen, an alien concept two decades back.  These days kids are burdened with the requirement to be the best in every field, to be more successful than the other person. Childhood of yesteryear was less competitive, adults rue.

Thoughts on fundamental concepts like freedom also differ when you compare different age groups. Though freedom for both an eight year old and a forty year old is the independence to do what one likes, for some it is the ability to able to live in peace and harmony. For yet others, it is to eat what one wants to. Freedom has always been relative, Past would attest to that.

According to kids, the world has come closer but adults think that communalism and fascism has resurfaced in recent years.

Whatever be the view, everyone agrees that the world is very different than what it was before.

Everyone has their own take on life. Some embrace the past, some live in the present, some look forward to the future.

No matter what, life goes on. New things happen; some things are relegated to the history books, others find their spot in the limelight.

And I am there to witness it all, even if for a fleeting moment.

Hope to hear from you soon.  

Love,

Present