X, Y, etc

“Ma, don’t be so sus!”, exclaimed my thirteen year old son. I was taken aback, not by his not-so-polite tone, but by the term ‘sus’. Now, what was that supposed to mean? Later, after we reached a truce, my son explained that ‘sus’ meant ‘suspicious’, and it was a word that ‘Generation Alpha’ used. Gen Alpha? And I was still struck to Generation X, my time, my peers… Though naming generations is more of an American trend, with rapid globalization, we all are now in the loop. Ours, the ones born between 1965 and 1981, belonged to what was popularly called the “latchkey generation” (Generation X), as many of us were often left unsupervised at home after school until the parents returned home from work. Douglas Coupland’s 1991 novel, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, is believed to be the origin for the term ‘Generation X’. Generation X overlaps the sandwich generation – which care for both their old, aging parents and their own children. Isn’t it fascinating that an entire generation gets an appellation? Novelist Gertrude Stein, who reportedly first coined the term the Lost Generation to describe the people who were born roughly between 1880 and 1900 and who had lived through World War I, may be credited for this. That phrasing was popularized by Ernest Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises, the epigraph for which quotes Stein saying, “You are all a lost generation.” Our grandparents and their contemporaries, born between 1928-1944, belonged to the ‘silent generation’. Also known as "Radio Babies" or "Traditionalists," the silent generation was taught to show respect to others by practicing courtesy and deference to authority. Our parents, most of them being born between 1945 to 1964, belonged to the Baby Boomers generation. According to a June 2008 survey by Pew Research Centre, the baby boomers generation is the gloomiest generation and are more downbeat about their lives than adults who are younger or older (remember our parent’s glum face and volatile mood when we were young?). The survey further finds that the boomers’ glum assessments about their lives overall are matched by relatively high levels of anxiety about their personal finances. Those born between 1982-1994 belong to Generation Y and are also known as Millennials, the Generation Why, Digital Natives or the Boomerang Generation. Generation Y is techno-savvy; though not born into the digital world, this generation migrated into it with elan. Then came Generation Z, those who are born between 1995-2010. Also labelled as centennials, for having been born into the world at the turn of the century, they arrived with a tablet and a smartphone under their cribs. Generation Z has the Internet as a part of their genome, and it shapes their relationships, storms their homes, imparts their education and decides their way of socializing. Last but not the least, Generation Alpha includes anyone born between 2010 and now, including up to the year 2024. The term was introduced by Australian social researcher Mark McCrindle in a 2008 report on the subject. This youngest generation is defined by the digital world. They are the first generation to experience remote classrooms, tablet computers, and ubiquitous streaming services from early childhood. They will also likely be affected by the emerging use of artificial intelligence. But it’s my generation, the Gen X demographic cohort, which saw it all. Well, almost all…We started off with televisions with antennae (which had to be manually rotated at our rooftops for ‘catching’ the signal!) and no remote, and now we watch OLED television. We can clearly recall our journey from ‘rotating dial’ telephones, PCOs, cordless handsets to modern-day smartphones. From baking cakes in round ovens to dishing out crème-bruleè from sleek microwaves, from travelling in rickety night-super buses (sans air conditioning) to travelling in bullet trains and from savoring grandma’s rice-dal cooked in earthen choolah to ordering keto-meals in Swiggy, my generation has had it all… Long before Siri and Alexa came into our bedrooms, we shared our lives with the Sony’s Walkman. It was an HMT or Titan watch on the wrist which epitomized the journey from teenage to adulthood; now, every person in sight sports a smartwatch. Yes, we travelled in trains, used slate in schools, ate lusi and boot dail in wedding receptions, received and gifted hideously tinted glass bowls in marriages, used postcards and inland cards, saw fax and telegraphs being used, played seven-stones, rode in Ambassador and Maruti 800 cars, listened to songs in gramophones (record players) and audio cassette players, used dusters on blackboards and also had fun with the play station and Xbox. We watched movies on VCRs and VCPs, bought cinema-tickets in ‘black’, joined the PVR brigade, and now, with our middle-aged backs needing some occasional rest, we watch web series in OTT platforms. We cherished test cricket, 45-overs ODIs, 50-overs ODIs, T20s; we saw the rise and fall of the love for cricket (match fixing). We witnessed Sachin Tendulkar at his prime, listened to Michael Jackson and Bryan Adams, saw the disintegration of the USSR, and were parts of CAB/CAA. We also lived through the Latur earthquake, Bhopal Tragedy, plague pandemic and COVID-19. We tasted Gold Spot, Rasna, Trinka and Thrill, and now we settle for tetra-packed juices. We saw Maggi’s debut in India, and the foray of the first superhero figurines (He-man and Skeletor) into the Indian market. We graduated from Mandrake, Tintin and Phantom comics to Sidney Sheldon and Stephen King over the decades; and now we also read Gerunimo Stilton and Manga series (from the kids’ bookshelves!). And it has been quite an adventure, from eagerly bought paperbacks to the ubiquitous Kindle. For us, the Assamese, it has been a long journey from Operation Bajrang to the AIIMS Guwahati, from one Chandmari-flyover to countless flyovers, from husori in the patio to Guiness-record holding synchronized bihu dance, from U-Turn-Chinatown-Sunflower-Reboti to Starbucks and McDonalds, from Fancy Bazar to the City Centre. Therefore, if we meet a Gen Alpha person, we must ‘slay’ with the goodness of our generation. I am sure that people from different times do ‘vibe’ at some level. There is no ‘W or L’ about any particular generation. Something about each generation ‘hits different’. (If you have not ‘understood the assignment’ in this paragraph, please seek your kid’s assistance!).