Chandamama

The commotion of technology is dying down, except in those who and whose families still operate basic mobile phones, not out of love of that technology but due to lack of money. This class is probably going to be the next IITians and IAS, at least a small fraction of them surely would become IITians and IAS. One grows up and realises that merit is a scam, sadly the parents of 90s kids would never understand, but parents of gen Z understand it a little bit and parents of gen alpha kind of understand it completely, the ones who don't, including the deprived classes have their kids on the way of becoming IITians and IAS, though not in a good way. Education is the most important thing but unfortunately in this country education doesn't change a thing, and one realises that a lot of the uneducated people in this land are better than the educated lot. Still, education is essential because people are exploited on the basis of lack of education, and knowledge. First it's about literacy, then it's about financial education and then it becomes about education of technology and access to it. Kids who don't have computers and do not know coding are missing out on a lot. The 90s middle class kids' parents prevented them from watching TV for studies and these parents, they are now mostly technologically illiterate and the majority of their technological know how is spent on reading WhatsApp propaganda and in fake pleasantries on Facebook. Anyone who has been in the 90s middle class knows that 90s middle class had an aesthetic of its own. The men used to read India Today, the women, Grihashobha, Manorama and Grihlaxmi and the kids Hindi and sometimes, if they are lucky, English comics. You go to railway stations and find all A.H. Wheeler stalls are closed now. The middle class's aesthetic is dead now and with it its dignity. The middle class is permanent now. And now again when a son or daughter of a rickshawala becomes an IAS, the middle class dad of today will show it to his son or daughter to shame them, the son or daughter still not recognising that they have some talent that they can use to earn money, after all it's just money that matters in today's times. The times have changed and these times do not reward perseverance and hardwork, and the middle class which is still stuck in the 90s, minus the aesthetic and the beauty of 90s middle class, has become a torture chamber for young boys and girls who hang themselves in their rooms in Kota.