Is this good or were old times of our parents generation better?
It’s an easy come, easy go affair
AFSANA AHMED
TIMES NEWS NETWORK SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2004 12:18:08 PM ]
MUMBAI: Former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan’s looking for a bride, barely days after his divorce. Her split with Hollywood hunk Ben Affleck didn’t delay J Lo’s marriage to singer Marc Anthony.
Closer home, 30-year-old theatre personality Indrani Sengupta’s mother believes that things (old toasters, chinaware dinner sets…) should be handled with extra care, as they last a lifetime. Indrani, however, insists that such a miserly attitude has no place in society today. Is this dismissal of the ‘reliable’ symbolic of the attitude of modern society, where nothing is permanent, not even relationships? Is ‘forever’ passé?
There’s Mahesh Murthy, TiE, President, Mumbai, who feels that ten years ago, couples were trapped in loveless relationships. Today, due to the higher availability of meeting grounds and a growing self-confidence, it’s easier to break away. “The pleasures of choices are plentiful. It’s like going from monopoly to a free market,” he explains.
From relationships to careers, it’s all easy come, easy go. Samir Nayyar, a TV professional, doesn’t have sleepless nights over his wobbly job status. He has confidence, qualifications, and the market is full of job options. Suvriti Gupta, an architect from Vashi, studies the whole ‘progressive’ tilt of society as a ‘cumulative effect.’ “When micro level things are disposable, you start believing that you can do without most things. With everything within easy reach, the dependency level is reducing. Everything becomes dispensable, including emotions and materialistic things,” she says.
“We live in a disposable society,” agrees noted psychiatrist Dr Anjali Chabria. “With manifold options in the market, the idea of ‘caring, mending and storing’ is no longer relevant.” Explaining why, she says, “Lower tolerance, impatience is an indication of superficial and short-lived emotions pervading society.”
Wherever society seems to be heading, there are still the traditionalists. Actor Rahul Khanna, for instance, believes that India is a country which upholds values and long-term commitments. “We are not changing as drastically as the West. Loyalty is still important here.” Having said that, he feels this ‘tilt’ has its own advantages and disadvantages. “On one hand, it encourages competition, but on the other, relationships become more fragile.”