FROM THEN TO NOW

From then to now

by J. L. Gupta

“GRANDPA! You told me that the wheel of providence is ever on the move. Change is the law of nature. What has changed since you were my age - say during the last 50 years?”

            “Everything has changed - my child! The attitudes, the times and the values - all have changed. Let me illustrate. You know that I have always followed the rule - early to bed and early to rise. People of my generation are always up before dawn. 'The early morning has gold in its mouth?' At that hour, the birds are chirping. There is a symphony in the air. It is music to the ears. The flowers unfold. These are more odorous. It adds to the freshness in the environment. It is soothing for the mind.”

            “You, my child, go to bed after midnight. By the time you get up, the golden glory of the morning is already gone. The crows are crow­ing. People are rushing to their offices. They are honking. It is noisy. It is hot.”

            “Can you visualize the two scenes? The dif­ference symbolizes the change.”

            "What else? Grandpa!"

            "Traditions and institutions have changed, my son. Even marriage has come to have a different meaning. Some years back, marriage was a sacrament. The man and woman were bound togeher for life. They pledged to remain together through thick and thin - forever and ever. Marriage gave the couple a home. It was their "harbour" during the storms in the ocean of life. And then motherhood was the fulfilment of a sacred mission. You know, when 'Adam was imbued with the holy spirit', he called 'woman - Eva - the mother of all.'”

"Thanks to man's progress, a sacred sacra­ment has been reduced to a mere contract. Matrimony has become a 'matter of money'. A man and a woman even now take the oath before the Holy Father or the holy fire. But mar­riage is no longer a union for life. It is now like a sentence of imprisonment. It can be suspend­ed at any time. It is no longer the union of two persons in love. It has been reduced to a 'three act play'. The man and the woman became husband and wife. The marriage is 'announced'. There is more 'clamour' than 'glamour'. There is more sound than sincerity. There is more loneliness than love. Instead of leading to connubial bliss, marriage begins to mean misery. Consequently, it is 'denounced'. Finally, by a decree of the court, it is 'renounced'.” “What God had joined, man puts asunder.”

“That is not all my son. Materialism has over­ taken even the maternal instincts. Motherhood signified a 'system in one word'. The dignity the grandeur, the tenderness of a mother were divine. A woman's soul lived in the love of her child. It was her whole existence. Today, the club, the cards and the kitty parties are more important than the kid at home. The child faces the cold and cruel world by himself. He does not get the gentle hand or the love from a moth­er's heart. He never hears any stories on his mother's knee. She sings no lullabies to him. She does not fashion his future. The ayah proxies for her.”

"And man is what his mother makes him. When you do not have a good mother you can­not have a good human being. A child who has spent his days and nights in the arms of an ayah, missed the caresses and kindness of the mother, whose years of childhood have passed in spite of the maternal indifference, does not grow up to be a confident young man. A con­tinuous sense of insecurity haunts him. At a young age, he is a decrepit. No wonder, hav­ing missed the mother's love, he looks for peace in marijuana."