Rueing the road ahead

 It terrifies me what a world we are leaving behind as a legacy for our generation next. Is it even worth living in any more?

At any given point, I cannot pick up a newspaper and turn its pages without encountering global warming, deforestation, wars, rape, violence, communal disharmony or road rage. If you scoff at me and say that these are commonplace, well let me remind you all that they were not what we grew up with as collateral damage of a globalised lifestyle.

I am still teaching my son values like honesty, compassion and simplicity, all the time wondering whether these ethics still hold any relevance whatsoever in this disturbed, angst ridden, mindlessly materialistic era where I often wonder whether people like me are an endangered species. I am not saintly or special, though. What I am is a human being who still doesn't see through dishonesty, manipulation, amorality and perversion. I am still surprised and shocked when people waste water, buy stuff which isn't ecofriendly, spend millions on a marriage, push or slight or bully the less privileged or the differently abled, manipulate the masses for illgotten gains which won't accompany them after death or cut down yet more trees in a world where we are now struggling to bring down endless urban lifestyle induced illnesses.

Every time I scroll through my Instagram feed though, I regain the courage to navigate the mired mess of our microcosm. IAS officers who turn discarded clothes into recycled bags offered free of cost to hawkers, enterprising compatriots who organise clean ups in the wake of irresponsible tourists in the mountains, highly educated young businessmen who give up their highly paid jobs to enhance consumer awareness and even legally confront powerful MNCs in the process, teachers who change lives by tiny acts of unforgettable compassion...I am touched by these countless stories of relentless positivity and effort. Maybe these are the stories we need to propagate. Surely these are the tales our future generations shall listen to with wide eyed awe and wonder?