"When I was as old as you ..."

“When I was as old as you are now, I used to …blah blah blah “or “When I was a kid…blah blah blah”

I have hated the statements beginning through the above written words throughout my childhood and I hate them even today. Parents are parents and they keep on repeating such sentences even if they know their children don’t care. Such sentences have never affected me but they have proved useful to me whenever I had a chance to gossip about parents with my classmates. But it wasn’t just me; everyone I know keeps on hearing this now and then. I do not need to explain how irritating it is because I assume you’ve been a victim too. No? Believe me you are the lucky one then.

Anyway I am not going to tell you what all I have heard because it’s the same story at everyone’s home. But what makes me write about it is that lately I have been using such sentences too. Shocking??? I know; I’m shocked at myself. Every time I state something like this, I think “Oh come-on, I am just 18 and not 80” but still I can’t help it.

It’s been a few months that I have been in Delhi and have got the opportunity to see my cousins’ study. And I am shocked.

 My brother and I have been the type of kids who read completely on their own without the help of their parents. It’s not that our parents did not pay attention towards our studies but they did not learn the answers by heart with us. They would give us orders and we would follow them without any complaints and as we grew up we made our own orders and aims which were completed by the end of the day. No matter how difficult our assignments had been; we had to do it on our own. They would guide us now and then but never have they, till today, made our assignments which ended up making us independent at an early age. So it can be said that our performance in school and now in college has always been the result of our own work. Even my parents believe that they had not played much role in our study life. We were always on our own and today I really appreciate it. In a long run, it has helped me a lot and would help in future too.

And here I am seeing my brothers relying highly on their parents for studying and other stuffs. It’s like they would not even sit on their own to study. No matter how much I try to think it as normal I can’t.  My uncle and aunt help them in their assignments, though they don’t make it. But even this shocks me. In a way, I really appreciate it but there’s always a ‘’but’’ because it’s not the way I was brought up. It’s nothing new I am seeing but it’s just that I never expected to see it in my own family. And what I feel bad about is that no matter how much my aunt tries to help her kids, my cousins have to crib about something or the other. They don’t even have exams like I used to have, 100 marks has diminished to 50, subjective has been replaced by objective, no short notes in history, no 5/6 marks question and the 1^st exam you appear is in 6^th grade.

The way I view it, I think these days’ students are really lucky but still they have to crib??? Someone please give them the question papers that we used to have. All I think of is it’s not fair. And then I start singing, “You know when I was in 6^th grade I used to blah blah blah..” or “When I was like you I never felt the need to learn Sanskrit, I enjoyed it and blah blah blah..” or “You’re lucky to have such an exam pattern because in our days…blah blah blah again” and I don’t stop. And believe me every time I say so, I am reminded of my parents who used say so all the time. I know that my cousins’ look says, “I am irritated, would you please stop?”  I know he does not care just like I didn’t but I would not stop. I keep on reminding myself that I should stop behaving like an old complaining lady but that simple slows me down.

In the end I realize that it’s neither my cousins’ fault nor mine. It’s just the generation gap and the changes. He is a 21^st century boy and I am from the 20^th century which obviously creates a void. But anyway I have to accept the change and stop speaking those irritating statements all the time. And now I certainly realize why my parents used to say those statements when I used to crib but no matter how much I try to understand, I am sure I will surely get pissed by it even now. One thing I know now is that it’s not just a parents’ problem.

Some things never change; it’s just passed to the next generation. I’m pretty sure that someday even my cousins would use such statements. Do you agree?