Undoubtedly one of the best things about being an avid Times of India follower is the once a week treat you get in the form of “Jugular Vein” by Jug Suraiya. The guy is probably the best satire writer I have come across and that’s like Bjorn Borg saying “The guy is probably the best tennis player I’ve come across!” (Yeah, I know you cannot compare me with Bjorn Borg, but c’mmon its not my fault if I am better looking than him!)
The latest “article” that he wrote focussed on nicknames and how they seem to be successful in bringing about the best in workplaces.(…..wonder it helped Beckham when they called him “goldenballs” where the ‘balls’ weren’t of the footballing kind!)
More about that later. Of course nicknames which are highly comic like those among the Moronic ilk will be discussed to improve the TRP of my blog.
One of the best issues I think he tackled was (to put it in layman terms) “lack of reading habit among the young generation”. (My younger brother screaming."Bhaiya! Aaj dekhkar bataiyo Delhi Times mein ki kaun kaunsi movies hain TV par!” comes to mind.) I think what he was referring to was the whole noveau culture at large but the part about the new literary habits was what struck me the most.
One of the most striking points about today’s younger generation (and here by young I mean below the age of 40) is the dearth of literature following. Part of the reason of me saying that is that I don’t count FPS, One night at call centre et al (not to mention “Anything for you ma’am-A (despo) IITian’s Love Story”) as literature. I think if the book sales of the last two years are looked at, these three would have surely had a market share of 75% at least.
I’m pretty sure by now, most of you would have labelled me a “Preachy Grandpa!” Well, mostly because reading is one thing I do most of the times (apart from when I’m not watching soccer, browsing wikipedia, following basketball, playing something, following F1 and of course gawking at Nicole Kidman wallpapers!) this is one issue I think I can go on and on about forever.
So again I end up writing a blog that would have made no sense to the junta in general at all. I’d like to quote from the inspiring prose: “The Gen Y thinks of reading as an art of identifying 26 letters (48 in case of hindi) which was prevalent among the ancestors when they were trying to distinguish themselves from monkeys!”
That’s my blog today!
And as the young ones would say: BRB!
5 comments:
Similarly, you wouldn't count "Idiot- O Chanti gaadi Prema Katha" as 'cinema', I'm sure...
Stupid (rather, idiotic) Haddu movies aside, like it or not, Chetan Bhagat and Co. have definitely brought reading back as an 'in' thing, and that's quite a start...Putting fancy books shining face up on the coffee table is one thing; selling a million copies is another...And, don't know about One night... but FPS (as in First-person shooter?) is nothing short of a literary (yeah, you saw it right) phenomenon. Period.
@the perverted game
it was (and is) no doubt a phenomenon....just that each person has his/(her?) views regarding what "good literature" is!
Somehow, I always felt that an average teen/tween today reads a lot more than his counterparts ten-twenty years ago. A mention of the book I was reading would spark off a perplexed 'Enid-who?' from those around me. In contrast, my brother and his friends spend all day discussing the absurd curses in the Potter series.
Then again, as you put it, 'good' literature is a highly subjective term.
@dhila
abey maddus are all ghissues!(haha!)
but i feel exactly the opposite, the very mention of me reading a novel instead of watching a movie is enough to spark off a chain of farts among,let alone the tweens, even some of my current crop of friends of my own age!
TOI? Ughhh
And Jug Suraiya? Double Ughhh
The Baster is one of the biggest India-bashers ever. All of his articles that I've had the misfortune to read have written-off India and Indians.
As far as reading habits are concerned, it's pretty much a known fact that we read less than our parents' generation. But then, they didn't have TV, Nintendo or Computers.
Post a Comment