The trustees of posterity

A community thrives on two credentials — its past and its future. The Parsi community has a past that few can rival, for sheer effort and effect. One and all extol the great achievements of our illustrious forefathers and the trails they blazed. They excelled in every sphere of human activity and set standards and examples which are benchmarks and pinnacles of achievement visualized by all.

And so, our thoughts turn to the future. And the future of a community can only mean one thing — its youth. As is rightly said — "The youth are the trustees of posterity.”

How exactly does the community view this youth? And perhaps, more importantly, how does this youth view the community? And is there a common meeting ground in these views, which would create hope for the years to come? Difficult questions — but questions that need to be asked and answered — nonetheless. This is perhaps the most important exercise that we Parsis, as a community, must do.

The first thing that Parsi youngsters realize, on coming in close contact with people from other communities is that they are privileged. And, perhaps equally so, tied down and held back. This may seem like a paradox but is reality too.

They feel privileged because:

•Most of them have studied in the "better” and more "elitist” English medium/convent schools of the country.

•The religion offers them freedom to act and think independently in ways many others don’t.

•Our women too, are not subjugated and have full liberty to choose their paths and follow them and in fact several of our community women are leaders in the fields they have chosen.

But there is an equally strong feeling of being held back — mistakenly attributed to the old traditions and rituals that the elders fight so hard to keep alive. So, as the pace of life gets faster and faster, and technology assumes dimensions nobody ever dreamed of, there is unfortunately a feeling of impatience and restlessness at the stress laid on traditions and rituals — which as the youth put it — "not many of us really understand and is being understood lesser and lesser as time goes by.”

This makes the youth critical and alienates them from their religion; unsavory controversies worsen the situation. This also then further leads to poor religious bonding but fortunately the social bonding and strong community feeling is very much alive.

This is also not to say that belief is lacking. We know for a fact, that when given a chance to really understand the true beauty of our religion, the youth respond as our forefathers did. The problem, they say is the lack of a standard and truly authoritative voice.

But then, if there is a lack of religious bonding, the same can never be said about the community feeling among the youth today. With the advent of technology, "keeping in touch” has never been easier. The various sporting events and social functions organized through the years are witnessing larger congregations all the time. The youth are also becoming socially aware of their responsibilities to the elders of their baugs and colonies. Which is why we can see a great deal of effort going into social activities that play a small but invaluable part in our existence.

The strengths of our youth are their independent and nonconventional thinking, their strong belief in themselves and the fact that they already were privileged to be a few steps ahead and better placed as compared to their friends from other communities.

Their weaknesses are a lack of original thinking, ‘following the herd’ mentality and the great influence of the western way of living and styles. Their love for the lucre and the desire to acquire it in a hurry is a drag which leads to impatience and dislike for hard work. Also, they often feel that the only road to success is the one that leads them to foreign nations. But then again today more and more youth are realizing that though foreign lands may be good to educate oneself in, the real place to thrive is back home. And therefore increasing numbers are returning to home ground. And even those who aren’t, are making an impact wherever they are and are creating an awareness about our community, thus helping us gain an international image and good will.

A large chunk of the youth feel that the community is doing more than enough for them and they get a great sense of security from this. Yet, there is a small section that feels that more should be done especially in the area of helping them set up their own ventures and enterprises.

Again while there is a section of the youth who enjoy their parents’ and community’s support and relish their "spoonfeeding” them till quite an advanced age, there is another section who loathe this and feel that this has been the major contributor to the youth’s laidback and complacent attitude. It is this segment of the youth that has great courage of conviction and are ready to move on and take the community forward so as to at least maintain the height and glory of the past, if not surpass it.

Thus, there is great hope for the fu- ture of our community as it is in the very safe hands of our responsible, thinking, ambitious, well guided and focused youth.

A reputed academician, Diana Marfatia is the Principal of the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Parsi Charitable Institution and heads the Bombay Parsi Puncha­yet’s Holiday Programme for Youth.