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a baker-holic, choc fanatic, dessert-freak.. yeah and i'm south asian :). A happy member of the Fuqua Class of 2011.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Lost Generation...

I have a lot of free time on my hands (yes, i've resigned from work, and am just serving my notice period).. i get done 31st may! you would think that since these are my last few weeks, i would be swamped with work, leave late and have a stressful life. Not at all actually.

Surprisingly, work has slowed down a lot, i actually have a little too much free time now. Not that i don't enjoy it - my gym-ing activities have started again. Although i have realised something, the free time you value when you're working in a rigourous 9-to-6 or whatever time routine (unofficially) you have at work, that feeling of high on the weekend is just unbelievable. .. I now have a whole two months to enjoy and plan, before the journey starts on 1 Aug.. actually the journey will start much earlier, what with immunizations, visas, accomodation, pre-coursework and planning on living in the US, i'd say the journey is already on full swing :)

Anyway, so what with the free time, my mind finds itself wandering and pondering various random thoughts... what's been bugging me for some time, is what i like to call "The Lost Generation"....here's how i define them:

See when all of us grew up, we had hobbies. Now, the way i see it, a hobby is an activity that you indulge in for leisure. It's an activity you take up in your free time, something to look forward to, a passion even. Some of the common hobbies are taking up sports, reading, collecting stamps or coins, painting, learning a craft, cooking, baking and so on. But for the generation of today, the kids who will grow up (or have already grown up prematurely), it all boils down to one thing - FACEBOOKING. Urgh. Facebooking is a hobby? Is it really? I mean seriously!! But honestly, if children/teenagers today spend all their free time on Facebook, chatting, joining x group, thinking whether to accept xx friendship request, what else would you call it? A hobby. A very sad hobby though.

Sigh. As much as I love technology, the Internet, Youtube, Facebook and the world of cell phones, i can't help but look back on my childhood. To start off with, none of us had cell phones. The world of missed calls, sms-ing, rejecting a person's phone call didn't exist :P It had a charm though - a certain freedom. You could do what you liked, unwatched, unaware. Now, it's just plain creepy - the stranger next to you on an aeroplane or bus could be google-ing you or facebooking your account to see who he(she) is sitting next to... or worse, they could be taking your picture with the oh-so-sleek camera of their cellphone and you wouldn't even know it!

So here it is - an ode to the lost generation; the kids of today who will never know the joy of playing CaromBoard, Risk, Cluedo, cards with their family; of meeting a stranger and knowing nothing about them; of reading books, painting on a summer afternoon; of calling your friends on their home phones; of not knowing who is calling you when you pick up the phone; of technology-innocence and simplicity.

:) Magical, the times we used to live in, eh?

9 comments:

ahembeea said...

I must say that your free time is affording you some very interesting observations :). I sometimes feel that we as a generation got the best of both the eras - the pre-internet and the present. It makes me poignant too to think how this age of information kills the charm that came when things were kept innocently simple. Social networking is a sign of our times though where broadcasting our lives is gradually replacing the most treasured aspect of Web1.0 - privacy and anonymity (or probably allowing us to experience both sides of the coin.)

Dagny said...

Hi There,

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Andrew said...

Great Blog! However, every time I visit, I am faced with an image of a chocolate cake.

As you have a little free time now, and as you are a self-confessed chocolate and fine baking addict, is there any chance that you could post a "waiting to start my MBA celebratory chocolate cake" recipe?

We are all searching for enlightenment in our individual ways, and part of this quest is, of course, the perfect chocolate cake recipe....

I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one who'd be eternally grateful and, indeed, in return, I could even give you "the skinny" on the very best bakeries and patisseries around the Duke area.......

Killjoy said...

Chocolate cake? No, no, no!

She is now an MBA to be, and so before making the cake, (something she has probably done expertly, many times before) will now have to first do a full statistical analysis report to elicit:

Consumer behavior; production cost; market price and output determination; conduct a simple competitive market equilibrium study; model variability and randomness using probability models; study the externalities, utilizing game theory; the optimal capital structure of the cake venture by analyzing the firm's investment and financing decisions over a longitudinal study; a cash flow analysis; and a trading simulation.

Only after the aforementioned due diligence are executed, can one take out the bowls, butter, flour, cocoa etc.

Everything you used to do well and efficiently, now involves analysis paralysis. 'Tis the American dream! Invented by Americans, for Americans.

Such is the lot of an MBA.....

Choc Heaven said...

hehehe :) at the cake comments/ideas! okay - i'll think over it and decide which cake is the easiest/yummiest...and Killjoy, sure i'm an MBA to be and the whole statistical analysis process is sure to kick in, but it hasn't yet!!

Unknown said...

Killjoy

Hilarious retort, but very accurate!

I would still like to see a recipe eventually though..

Killjoy said...

Choc Heaven,

So glad to hear you're still with us in the real world!

And Wow! Your promise of Choc Heaven is almost too much to wait for, but I eagerly do so..

Andrew said...

Glad the idea went down well Choc Heaven, and that you have kindly stepped in to help with the enlightenment :) Can't wait for the recipe!

Anonymous said...

We want cake! We want cake! We want cake! etc, etc!!
SW