A Tale of Two Generations

Based on my lived experience, India's journey over the last 75 years, in stock-market parlance, is one of going from a big-miss to a big-beat.

There’s a popular equation floating around the internet: Satisfaction = (Reality minus expectations).

My professional world runs on a bastardized version of this formula. Smart people expend misguided energy in making up unreliable expectations over absurdly short timeframes. Mood then swings based on whether earnings missed or beat estimates. Headlines scream “Big miss” or “Massive beat”.

At we celebrate our 75th Independence Day, I view my personal experience of those 75 years through the miss-beat lens. Notwithstanding my curmudgeonly personality, I’m not 75. So, reviewing this period combines my impression of the generation before me with my first-hand experience. The last 75 years are a tale of two generations, one with a big miss and another with a big beat.

Generation-Miss

My parents’ generation was born around 1947. While they didn’t participate in freedom struggle, their formative influences were shaped by its afterglow. They imbibed the hope and confidence of a newly independent nation, led by generally admirable people. In their minds, India had been upgraded to buy and their expectations were high.

Imagine those expectations meeting reality as that generation entered the job market in the 70s. An entire middle class faced the choice of either working for the Sarkar or for a Lala. That’s assuming they got employment to begin with. While “angry young man” is referred to as the popular movie trope of the 70s, that’s not how I remember it. The phrase stuck in my head from movies of that time is “velai illaa pattadhaari” (“unemployed graduate”). Ending up as one was my worst nightmare for at least three decades. That generation had to stick to whatever jobs they got, no matter how measly the pay or how painful the boss. While there was enough money for essentials, surplus was meagre. Supporting weddings in the family, less fortunate relatives and medical emergencies ensured that making it to maasa kadasi (month-end) couldn’t be taken for granted.

Generation-Miss was also Generation-Stoic

What I articulated above is my reconstruction of their lifetime, not what they told me. I’ve always been amazed at how little their generation cribbed. They never conveyed any sense of despondency or cynicism. If at all, they passed on an unlikely mix of aspiration and pragmatism. It was never “Life’s tough, boo hoo”. It was always “Life’s tough, work your ass off to make it”. As education was the path with best odds of a more prosperous life, that generation threw itself headlong into ensuring the best education for my generation.

Biased as I am, I feel that my generation had the best parents ever. Parents’ generation imbibed in us a set of insanely useful values – frugality, diligence, perseverance, honesty, pragmatism, no free lunch, figuring out how to crack any system, necessity of grinding through stuff whether I like it or not. My generation was forged in Sparta, minus the violence or six-packs.

Generation-Beat

I was born in 1974. My formative influences were based on the 80s and early-90s. You name the disaster, we had it: mass protests, riots, secessionist movements, terrorism, unemployment, inflation, Miandad, corruption, assassinations, having to put up with Mohan movies for Ilaiyaraja songs. Despite my parents’ best efforts to channel adversity into a positive spirit, it was clear that the world sucked. This led to the second boon for my generation (first was getting raised by Generation-Stoic): low expectations. I would have settled for anything above velai illaa pattadhaari.

When I was in middle-school, I was told that there were exactly two life paths:

(1) Good marks —> engineering college, MS in US with scholarship, dollar salary, white colour house with 2-car garage & kutti pool, wife like Amala.

(2) Bad marks —> BA pass, Udupi hotel server job, wear banian & folded lungi with checked under-shorts showing, scrounge around under grimy tables for dropped change.

Funny thing was, it wasn’t parents who outlined these stark alternatives. It was another kid, a few years older than me. Low expectations and pragmatic approach to life had been democratized.  On an unrelated note, a year later, I got 1st rank.

With such low expectations, odds of a beat were good. But my Generation-beat didn’t know it then.

Generation-Beat was also Generation-Lucky

If I hadn’t been told to mind my language, I’d have labelled my generation “lucky bastards”. I graduated just as the TCS and Infosys buses were pulling into campus to recruit trespassers. Suddenly, we could work for professional organizations in A/C offices while making good money. I knew people who bought houses in 90s just by being frugal on their onshore stints with these companies. Everything that happened around us was a massive surprise: liberalization, subsequent economic trajectory, IT/ITES revolution, MNCs flocking to India, 2000s boom, India becoming a source for global talent. I realize that not everyone (even with middle-class upbringing & education) benefited from this, but my point is that the average outcome was way superior to what any of us expected, even when we were in college. We were Spartans who ended up far from spartan.

In closing, I don’t have profound things to say about India’s last 75 years. I don’t know about all the hits & misses of public policy. But I have shared my personal perspective, direct and indirect. It’s an implausible story of going from massive-miss to massive-beat in the span of one generation. Which is kinda amazing, if you stop to think about it.

Despite sarcasm and Byjus jokes, I am an out-and-out optimist. I believe that world and India are getting better by the day. Often, someone points out something patently bad (not realizing that bad and better can coexist) and questions my optimism. While I don’t defend my views to others, all I need to do to convince myself is to run an 80s flashback through my mind. All that’s bad today fades into insignificance and I can’t believe it’s the same country.

What of Generation-Next? I don’t have a forecast. I don’t know if they’ll have a ‘miss’ or ‘beat’ versus their own elevated expectations. But here’s my wager. They’ll have a way better life and country than either Generation-Miss or Generation-Beat. But they’ll crib more, though.

Happy 75th Independence Day.

PS. This is a personal essay of someone born to educated, salaried parents. I realize that Generation-labels are very different for someone born into more adverse circumstances. But I am writing on my behalf, not moralizing on others’ behalf. As kids on the internet say, don’t @ me.