Advertisements, for most of us, are those annoying things that interrupt us as we are watching our favorite program on the television.
It’s quite rare that we get to see an ad which is so entertaining that we don’t really seem to mind the interruption, but it’s all too common to come across ads that irritate us.  One ad which gets my goat is of a popular cellular network provider and it goes like this. A teen girl proudly proclaims that she is going on a date with a fellow teen (who shows up in a flashy car).  The hero of the ad is another teen,
who secretly admires the girl in question, and comes up with an idea to ensure that the Romeo in the car doesn’t get cozy with the girl he is after: he presents her with a swank new mobile phone, equipped with the cellular providers’ data services.  The girl is so hooked to the phone that the
Romeo with the car gets nothing but the cold shoulder.  Nice idea, or is it really?
Now there might appear to be nothing wrong with this ad, especially for people outside of India, but to better understand why I'm not a fan of this ad, let's consider a couple of facts.
All around the world, teenagers date and it is perfectly normal for kids in India to do it too. However, all over the world, to the best of my knowledge, teens also work part-time, waiting tables, working in supermarkets, going on newspaper-routes and the like, earning money to take care of their own expenses, at least in part.  How about in India ?  Oh, no, no, no!  In India, it is considered to be the duty of the parents to provide for all the expenses incurred by their
darling children.  It's been so, practically for ever, barring exceptional cases.  That was how it was for me as a kid and that was how it was for my dad, and his dad.   Most of the kids in India grow up never having worked for pay, before they land their first job, after the completion of their studies. Till the child graduates, it's generally the parents who foot all expenses incurred by the child. This peculiar fact probably explains why studies receive so much attention in India, and also the fact that the vast majority of kids who go to school also graduate.  The West has the concept of dignity of labor while we in India don't.  The average child does not grow up to wait tables, tend the bar, drive trucks or work at the gas station.  It's those kids whose parents could not afford to educate them or those who were too dumb to make it through school who work such jobs.   In the west, I believe it is  common to find people who pick up such jobs as they were disinterested in education, while in India, there can be no such thing as being disinterested in studies.  Unless one is mentally retarded or one's parents cannot afford to put them through school, it is assumed that the child WILL finish his/her graduation and will then commence working in a respectable job.  Oh, in case you didn't already realize, being a truck driver or a gas station  attendant is NOT considered to be a respectable job if one happens to hail from a 'respectable' family.  To avoid digressing further, let me just say that kids in India don't work: their parents provide for them.  When I was a student, I had but to ask my parents for money, as and when I needed it. Of course, the need had to be justified and I couldn't do anything that I wanted with it.  I never got  any fixed pocket money either, and it was so with all of my friends.
So, how did my friends and I manage dating expenses ? What dating expenses ? We were students who were not supposed to be dating anyway for we were
supposed to be doing nothing but studying and we didn't date. Upon completion of our studies, we would land good jobs and then our parents would find
somebody nice for us to get married to and get settled down with.  See, no need for dating! For those of you to whom it sounds like extremely outdated
thinking, I totally agree with you. For those of you who read this with disbelief, I can assure you that it is perfectly true.   The fact that our parents provided us with everything was always going to be used as a psychological weapon to rein us in.  Harsh discipline and capital punishments only leave one bitter, but emotional binding works wonders, depending on which side you are looking from.  Not only was dating frowned upon, it was positively taboo.  Only the really adventurous souls, the reckless ones and of course, the wrong-ones did it.  I once shook a girl's hand in one of those fancy club-handshake ways, in school, and promptly got a call to my teacher's chambers where she took it upon herself to try and explain how I was deceiving my parents and going against the norms of our great society.  I was as much a rebel then as I am today, and I  immediately took it upon myself to express my indignation against her ravings which only enraged her that much more. Anyway, I always felt that we ought to have more society approved freedom and a more lenient view towards dating. The approval of the society would
make dating enjoyable to everybody and not just those who got a kick out of grabbing the forbidden fruit. Enter the next generation and it was plainly visible that they were not going to be held back by emotional restraints, as we used to be.  I remember badgering my father to buy me a personal computer when I was nineteen and a mobile phone when I was twenty.  These requests were very reluctantly granted, after subjecting me to lengthy debates about necessities and luxuries, in life.  I now saw the next-gen kids using same tactic with great success, for getting themselves greater freedom, regular pocket money, enough money for dating expenses and so on.  And they dated like they were compensating for all their
predecessors who could not.  Now, parents know and have started to accept that their children date.  It's even possible that some of the parents know
and have accepted that their children are sexually active.  Wow! Our society has come a long way from the medieval era, it would seem, but has it ?   It is great to see the kids of the next generation enjoying far greater freedom, but has it made them think about how they themselves can be more
responsible people?  They certainly managed to get the freedom to date,  but now surely they will also be thinking about working part-time, to pay for those additional expenses ? Oh no.  Why bother with uncool things like working when whining works so well ? The kids seem to whine more, and their parents seem to give in more and more. Son: Dad, I need a car as all my friends have cars. 
Dad: Okay sonny. 
Daughter: Dad, I need thirty grand as I need to buy some designer clothes.  All my friends wear only designer clothes and it would be humiliating to be
seen wearing commonplace clothes.
Dad: Hmmm, okay darling. 
Son: Dad, I need twenty grand to buy a girl who is not even my girlfriend, a phone.
Dad: What ? Why ??
Son: Come on dad, the other guy is trying to impress her with the new car his father has gifted him.  My car is three years old!  I can't compete!
I need to at least give her a cool new phone, to stay in the hunt, so what's it going to be ? A new car or fifteen grand ?
Dad: Ok, ok. You got me there.  Here you go, twenty grand.
Son: Thanks dad, you are the best! Are most of our generation-next nothing but whiners ?
Has it become a case of the cure being worse than the disease ?Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.