Youth
21 Oct 2011: Wishful thinking apart, youth are very scarcely represented on most national and global forums where decision making actually takes place. High entry barriers and vague access points mean that by the time we figure out how to represent ourselves, we move out of the ‘youth’ definition.
I have about 1.5 years of ‘youth’ tag @ the UN and I am really going to make sure we do everything to set this right at the international level.
As for the national level, to have the remotest chance, I’ll need another surname
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17 July 2013: How can we ever imagine creating a truly democratic nation when in our own families we do not allow questioning, we make dissent a taboo and we act in total compliance of our parents and community, even if it suffocates our individuality?
If we expect kids to blindly comply and execute parental agenda in their lives, if we look at being given birth as a great debt that needs to be repaid with the sacrifice of our dreams and if we don’t even flirt with the invisible boundaries tradition cages us in, it is but natural that we find ourselves helpless in challenging status quo in the socio-political space
Its not only charity that begins at home — transformation of a nation does too.
29 Dec 2013:
Why we need an artistic revolution?
With marketing and media, our desires are hyper-stimulated. The energy is the same — it manifests as wanting ‘more’. More products, more experiences, more pleasure, more power — more than we would have wanted.
And while we have stimulated this energy, this hunger, we have no clue what to do with it, how to channelize it. Hence, on one end there is ‘development’ which is stripping our planet off its resources in a blind race to ‘prosperity’. On the other end is the violence, rapes and road rage — it is all this pent up energy that we do not know what to do with.
At such a time, it is the arts that can let us express this energy — and let us reflect as humanity, let us question our choices and create new possibilities. And each of us can tune into this energy to express our own truth as art — poetry, painting, prose or photographs…..songs, sculptures, salsa or skits.
Let us use this deep drive to break down the invisible walls of conditioning, the unquestioned assumptions and the dysfunctional ways of being that have emerged — awaken the artist within you. Today.
29 Oct 2016: My dream for a young person 50 years from now:
- Assured food, shelter, and clothing till 18 + a grant on turning 18 that can be used for study, business or buying a productive asset
- No need to study for jobs; curiosity-based learning
- A visa for all countries of the world (from age 18–20) with a booklet of 10 free flights to travel
- Lots of time to chill, hang out, read, play, make sense of the world and to love
- Access to liberal arts and science both equally
- Connection with people from all ages and an emotionally supportive community, that helps them learn how to co-exist with others
- Spaces where they can meet other young people across boundaries of religion, sexual orientation, caste, class and gender
Does that sound reasonable?
30 Oct 2016:
It is time for college students to step up their demands for
- freedom to choose courses across disciplines : based on their interest
- zero compulsory attendance : let teachers be interesting enough to bring students to class
- campus democracy : start having a say in running of their own colleges
- co-created curriculum : cos the guys deciding syllabi can’t create a top notch program all alone
- removal of totally arbitrary rules that are essentially ways of controlling rather than anything meaningful
We create a mixed group of students, journalists, professionals, teachers, administrators, politicians, and activists to drive this agenda all across, and don’t drop it till we make it happen.
The real question is : how many of us are really willing to put in our time and energy?
If this issue moves you and you belong to any of these groups, PLEASE REACH OUT, and let’s make some good things happen for our coming generations.
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12 Jan 2018: International Youth Day — time to look at ‘TOKEN’ participation of youth
T : Transient population; the young of today aren’t gonna be the young of tomorrow so there’s a constant churn
O : Occupied; with studies career and family pressure, there is little time to think about “youth issues”
K : Kidding; idealistic asks on policy front that are bound to be dismissed by policy makers as impractical
E : Entangled; by their own ‘intersectionality’ (for example young women would rather focus on gender as a platform, differently abled youth on their rights or some other groups on caste)
N : Namesake; the presence of youth in most places also ends up being for the ‘sake’ of it
Swami Vivekanand was an exceptional being who shone very early in his life. For lesser mortals, being young is a difficult time.
For today and going, if we can actively support young people by
- dismantling power structures and sharing power
- helping ease the life transitions their making
- providing space for them to reflect on their choices
We’ll be honouring the spirit of Swamiji
Blue Ribbon Movement 5th Space Youth Collective
