‘Your views, suggestions and ideas are welcome’ (some even add the term ‘valued’) are often appended to articles, reviews and posts basically eliciting laudatory comments but not quite expecting critiques or perspectives that’s contrary to what’s been propagated. Opinions might differ person to person, but these aren’t welcome by those seeking it !
That said, one thing old timers have in common (apart from post retirement blues !) are loads of time, old stories of their life and times and ready offering of sage advice to the gen-next & next-next, depending on who’s available on hand. But who is listening ? Yet a few decades ago, it was given that seniors (read parents and grand-parents in the joint family system) would rightfully ‘lecture’ off-springs including close nephews/nieces on do’s & don’t’s and on ‘Sanskar’, even after their being married & with own children.
Thanks to those practices we got more educated, were married off early by elders to the one considered right for us and started families soon in keeping with family traditions. There was pattern in the ‘family way’ ! No one could retort when family elders spoke on decisions to be taken. Those who did were considered badly brought up and rebellious.
I recall my Grand-mom telling my 45 year old Uncle ‘There’s no need to hide and smoke, your Dad knew of it some 20 years back’ ! She was giving permission to him to smoke in public but Uncle wouldn’t. Question of having beer with Dads was generally unheard of, unless father and son were both from the ‘Fauji’ Services. Exceptions proved the rule ! Archaic as it may sound, none of my friends nor I, smoked, drank or used cuss words in presence of our parents (till much later). My Dad smoked and liked to swear at times !
But all that seems a very long time ago and parents today listen to children more than they do to them, given the pressures of professional life and social media on our kids. Celebrity veteran actor, Anil Kapoor was asked in an interview (in the presence of his young actor son, Harshvardhan) if he gave advice or tips to him, Anil’s response was ‘I prefer giving advice to children other than my own- because they never want to listen to me’. His son laughed it off saying his Dad wasn’t so much at it, as was his Mom, Sunita !
In the Netflix’s latest hit, four part tele-film called ‘Lust Stories-2’, the first story has an irrepressible Granny (Neena Gupta is superb !) who talks about importance of physical relations in conjugal bliss to her granddaughter who’s just got engaged. Granny candidly enlightens the girl on her own ‘birds and bees’ stories, much to the girl’s amusement and embarrassment of the mid-aged Son & his Wife, since such talk is taboo in the family ! We may ask ‘Will today’s liberated youth ever need this kind of guidance from elders?’
Working on Living 