Scary Marksism

This one’s for you Chetan!

The special edition of Maharashtra Times, on the occasion of 48th anniversary is focused on youth. The guest editor for this edition is world renowned author Chetan Bhagat. Following is the brief on Chetan’s thoughts for Maharashtra Times readers…
The communication mediums are getting stronger day by day. Today I am here as a guest editor is because of twitter. Invitation of Maharashtra Times anniversary and an opportunity to interact with all of you has been given to me by this medium only. I get to know about point of view and feedback from the young generation about my books, my write ups and their lifestyle through internet. These young readers have introduced their generation to me.

Today’s special edition focuses on the thought process of young generation. If you ask me about it then the life today’s youth revolves around career and romance. These are the two major things, which are on their hit list. Folks who interact with me, they tell me about that only. Of course there are a lot of other things than love. I am on the panel of a channel’s anchor hunt. The contestants there are capable but they lack willingness to increase their capabilities. One should be curious about knowing things. Let it be Bhopal Gas Tragedy or IPL, one should know things in depth especially the youth. Today’s youth has to be curious. Our education system lacks creativity. We don’t teach our children to think. That’s one of the reasons why we lag behind as compared to foreign countries. We can promote the cost effective IT engineers to the world however the platforms like google, yahoo and facebook haven’t come from an Indian mind, even though we have millions of software engineers.
Youth is not keen on politics, however well qualified and good politicians can inspire them. This is like that only. Marathi youth is too simple. Maharashtra has got its own culture but its promotion is dependent on the efforts of Marathi Man. Food and Music are main components of Punjab’s culture. Punjabis have dominated the pop music in India. What is stopping Marathi man from opening a Maharashtrian cuisine restaurant and promote it all over? Since Mughals didn’t have so much of active presence in Maharashtra , the Maharashtrian culture remained untouched. It should be preserved and more and more people should be incorporated in it.

S.S.C. results are out. A lot of people have got 100% and that has put folks who got 90% under pressure. I sincerely want to tell the youth that marks aren’t everything in life. Though I secured 76% in tenth and 85% in twelfth, I am still leading a wonderful life. You can do a lot in life even though you didn’t score well. I strongly feel that this should reach the youth the communication media. Youth should also be keen on learning.

- Courtesy Maharashtra Times –June 18, 2010

- Translated by Rashmi Agrawal (please excuse mistakes if any this is my first attempt of translation)