Generation gap!?

Tanvi, one of my cute little cousins turned 5 yesterday…Both of us share an age difference of some 20 odd years!! I made it a point to go and attend her Birthday Party no matter what…and what a wise decision that was!! Tanvi looked amazingly pretty in her birthday dress…her smile made her look all the more charming. She was all busy with her friends…a gang of some 10-12 kids…most of them 5-6 years old. Each one of them was dressed up for the occasion, carrying a gift of course! We all played some games, starting with “passing the parcel”. No Birthday Party can be complete without this game! I actually walked down the memory lane of my birthday parties when I was a kid…and all I felt was “nostalgic”….completely nostalgic. Suddenly it seemed that time had just taken a big leap…felt as if it was just a few days back when I was in my school and had a Birthday party like this…time flies off…seriously…

But the surprise was yet to come! After all the games played: indoor and outdoor, the “kids” decided to dance for sometime…only then I realized there were couples in place, as in “boyfriends” and “girlfriends”!!! And my first reaction turned out to be WOW!! I came to know from my aunt about Tanvi’s boyfriend …and I am still searching for one!!! Ain’t that funny!?? Then started the music and the way these kids danced and jived…I was left speechless!
The ease and perfection with which these chaps were shaking their leg was amazing…in between I happened to overhear the conversations these kids had amongst each other…the gals discussed about the latest trends, placed their comments on each others dress and accessories…the guys talked about the movies…the happenings at school and some random stuff. Listening to all that stuff…and watching the way these kids talked, behaved, their expressions, body language…quite some experience, I must say. All n’ all I had a great time!!

When I came back home and lay on the bed, the party snapshots were fresh in my mind. Suddenly I remembered the term “generation gap”! sounds funny, but somewhere down the line I did feel that. As far as my memories go, the way we used to celebrate our Birthday Parties, our topics of conversation, our definition of enjoyment when we were kids seemed to be a bit too old for today…this is very much close to the sentence my parents say to me at times….and I just laugh it out! One of the reasons of me feeling this way might be the fact that I was bought up in a small town…but now when I have moved out and live in a place like Mumbai, after Tanvi’s Birthday Party I felt that the ways of enjoying that I can relate to now are already a part of the kids of Tanvi’s generation…!!

Life styles, perceptions, behavior patterns, everything changes with each generation, but at the same time, the concepts remain universal…Birthdays were, are and will always be celebrated with balloons and ribbons, cakes and gifts; friends will turn up and have a bash…kids will always enjoy the ice-creams and cold-drinks…and of course…“passing the parcel” will always be a part of every Birthday Party!!!