The Generation Gap!

I realize that, at age 73, I have already become outdated and obsolete, especially if I were to have a conversation with my grandchildren of 18, 9, and 7 years!

 
I would be completely out of touch with the materials they read, the methods of their education, the way they pick-up life lessons, their thoughts, actions, and tastes. It is really amazing to get some glimpses into the younger ones' perceptions of the world around them - the same world that we all see and live in together.

The other day my daughter visited a Bengali restaurant in Singapore that had a big painting of Rabindranath Tagore on its wall. My granddaughter looked at it curiously for some time and commented - he looks like an Indian version of Dumbledore! 

I haven't the faintest idea who Dumbledore is and she wouldn't have heard about the legendary Tagore, whose wonderful writings inspired us in our youth. My daughter filled me up with the information that Dumbledore is a character from the popular Harry Potter movie.

On further investigation, I found that the figure my granddaughter had in mind belongs to none other than the headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, one of the most beloved characters from J K Rowling's Harry Potter series of fantasy novels.

About a decade back I was curious to find out what was keeping my elder grandson glued to his book with the fascinating and alluring title 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone', and made an earnest attempt to read it. But I must admit that it was a complete failure! Now I don't have the time, patience, or inclination to read any of the seven Harry Potter novels that the most successful British author J K Rowling created for younger readers out of her fertile and creative imagination.

We have to accept the fact that our world views are altogether different from our grandchildren's, forming the perennial generation gap that is normally bridged by our children!

Let me end with a couple of quotes from Rabindranath Tagore in this context:

"Children are living-beings - more living than grown-up people, who have built their shells of habit around themselves. Therefore it is absolutely necessary for their mental health and development that they should not have mere schools for their lessons, but a world whose guiding spirit is personal love."

"The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence."

And a few wise sayings by Dumbledore, relevant to our troubled times:

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”

“Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.” 

“The best of us sometimes eat our words.” “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”