WHEN we were in our teens, 60 years ago, aged people were quite popular in families and social settings. Young people would gather around them and ask them what the world had been like when they were young.

One reason for this, of course, was that youngsters in those days were curious and eager to learn. Today’s teens have every-thing at their fingertips. Just the click of a mouse gives them all the information they need on any subject.

Perhaps that is why they do not reme-mber much of what they read. When I was young, we had to travel long distances, sometimes walking, at other times changing three buses before reaching a library.

Some books were expensive, sometimes only available abroad. If someone was lucky, he would ask a relative to buy books for him and bring them back. He would share such books with some of his class fellows.

Nowadays, it is different. At most of the wedding dinners that I am compelled to attend, youngsters and even men in their 50s, stare curiously at me as I read a newspaper or book on my smartphone. Then they turn to their phones, look at WhatsApp videos and other social media, and feed their minds with mostly fake or pathetic, useless stuff.

No one wants to know about the wars or the politics of the past, and how we managed to survive. Unsurprisingly, there is really a huge generation gap between us, the elderly, and the younger ones.

Shakir Lakhani
Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2024