Generation Gap!

I am surprised with the title I have given to this post. A few days ago, I found myself on the right side campagning about the Generation Gap. Now, I anticipate seeing myself on the left side (hearing to the cries instead of crying).

I am amazed and speechless at the new genre of kids. Yes, you read it correct. I am calling them a new type or variety of humankind. Children today are fast, amazingly intelligent and energetic.

The other day, I was trying to dissuade my 4-year-old cousin from playing on the computer by making up stories and telling him that I do not have games on my PC. He insisted that I start the PC; I switched it on, confident enough that I will be able to dissuade him with my false stories. “Which operating system do you have, XP or Windows 2000?” I could not believe my ears (the words still haunt me). I could feel my confidence tumbling down in seconds; I failed to discourage him from playing. The little boy did not just play but also shared websites on which I could play online games.

I was baby sitting my niece and nephews on a Sunday when one of them (who is 7 years old) challenges me to play the Spelling Bee. He annouced: “give me any word and I will spell it for you”. I smiled and started with simple words like teach, nephew, and mathematics and so on. He laughed and said “don’t give me kindergarden words, give me complex words.” I did not want him to loose confidence and started giving words that were one level high like calligraphy, geometery, and trignometery. I was amazed at his vocabulary; he spelled all the words correctly, which made me think if I could go beyond three letter words when I was his age.

On another evening, I was excited to see my friend with her one-n-half year-old daughter. After our hellos, I asked her little daughter if I should help her remove her shoes. The little one replied, “I can do it”. I stood there thinking that she was probably shy or was trained by her mother to be nice and cordial. I was sure that in no time she would need my help to remove her shoes. To my surprise, the little angel removed her shoes and socks, placed the socks in the shoes and kept them on the shoe rack. I smiled and hugged her on her achievement. She was not only good at taking her shoes off but was also good in tieing her shoelace. I do not think I could tie my shoelace until I was in class I.

My 11-year-old nephew can add, subtract, and multiply numbers without a pen and paper. When I say numbers, I actually mean complex numbers. Throughout his vacation in India, he kept helping his mother convert INR to Dollars and vice versa. Infact, one day when we were driving he challenged me to play the number game. After the game, I did not understand if I should feel happy or sad that I lost to him by 45 seconds in multiplying 1482*32. Yes, he gave the correct answer before me. I am happy and proud that he is doing well yet sad that I lost to a 11 year old kid.

A friend at work tells me that she once gave her 2-year-old son his shirt to wash. She was expecting him to wash it in a traditional way (over the slab, imitating the dhobi), because as a kid she had washed clothes that way. To her surprise, her son opened the water tab, filled a bucket with water, and immersed the shirt in the bucket holding one end of the shirt in his hand. He then spinned the shirt in a circle, making the wooof sounds. He called his innovation the “Water Machine”.

With so much knowledge, intelligence and technology on their side, I can see these kids growing into Whiz kids! Are we prepared to sit on the left side and hear them cry about the generation gap? With the pace at which they are growing up and developing themselves into all rounded individuals, I can see them surpassing our methodical yet innovative thinking.

I guess it is time for us to prepare ourselves to see a completely new dimension of innovative and creative thinking that will bring along the generation gap cry. If we cried about the generation gap (how our elders never think like us and never understand our view) at the age of 18 – 19, I can see these kids crying about it by the time they turn 12 – 13. Are we ready?

Until now if we were working hard to abreast ourself with the latest to fight competition, its time we get ready to abreast ourselves to fight the Generation Gap!