The changing face of parenting in India

Recently, I came across a TV program related to the booming economy of India. With the rich getting richer and the burgeoning middle class trying to reach the levels of the rich, people are leading way more stressful lives today than they were a few years ago. The average middle class Indian works almost 6 days a week and around 12 hours a day, the weekend gets severely shortened and so does the time a regular parent spends with their child.

As a kid, I looked forward to the weekends as quality time spent at home with my parents. My mom would make the best food for us and my dad would take us out to the lake/park  near the house to spend some time with us. I'm guessing that in a way they enjoyed the time they spent with us too. 

 But in today's world there are 24 hour "day" care centres which allows parents to not only leave their children during the day, that is, the time when they work, but also at night. Many parents leave their children over at these "day" cares because they are too tired to deal with the demands of their children, especially after meeting the demands of their bosses and seniors at work. It makes sense on a level where you realize that parents are human beings too who are being taxed. In a world where both parents work 9 to 5 jobs such day care centres seem welcome, but at the same time, I wonder whether it is actually the right thing to do.

What would we do if the lights went off?

Recently, I started watching a TV series called Revolution. The storyline is fascinating yet at the same time thought provoking. The series starts off with a simple incident (which turns out to be so very complicated)- the power going off. Out of the blue, the electricity that we all depend so very much on just vanishes! Cars don't work, the lights won't turn on, even the cell phones stop working.

We're not told anything about what happened and why exactly the lights go off except that there was a start up which was working on an eco-friendly energy system development and something caused their research to result in powering off the lights. It makes you wonder what sort of technological advance would be needed to actually recreate this on such a large scale! But I deviate, the show makes you wonder what life would be like if we just lost all the electricity. Although it's purely drama and through the show characters lose their lives and anarchy hails supreme, what would we do if the lights went off?

Would we go back to living the way we did pre Industrial revolution or would we not be able to continue living because of our primal instincts to kill and survive? There surely will be those clamouring for power and trying to make the most of the situation and eventually I guess we will live in some peace. No distractions for one. I wouldn't be using a cell phone to talk to someone else when one of my friends is sitting right in front of me; I'd start walking more and possibly lose a few extra kilos, I'd actually go out and meet new people rather than chatting with them on the internet. But maybe I'm being a little too optimistic. Maybe none of that would actually happen and like the series shows, the world will be ruled by one major power and we'd all be subjected to a militia which reigns supreme.