A few days ago, the housing society that I live in issued a circular saying that single folk, bachelors or spinsters, will not be allowed to stay on rent in the society. Houses in the society can be rented out only to married couples. The newspapers too have been stating how this trend is on the rise. Housing complexes do not want singles in their houses!
Why are we doing this? The usual answer I got to this was: Arre baba, who knows what type of people we will get in the colony. These youngsters na, they stay up late, they don’t even come back home some nights and sometimes, they bring their girl friend or boyfriends to stay overnight. What culture! Do you want your children to grow up seeing all this? We are only protecting our children from all this!’
Are we?
We are targeting an entire growing up generation and telling them loud and clear that they don’t have the right to start their lives peacefully. We are telling them that they can’t live in ‘civilized colonies’ because they are not married. We are telling them that they can’t begin their careers in a city like Mumbai.
An expensive city like Mumbai doesn’t give many options of stay for these youngsters. Young boys and girls with stars in their eyes want to chalk out lives of their own. There are not enough hostels for all. They cannot possibly afford individual houses and decide to pitch in with friends at work place or otherwise to share a moderately decent flat so that they can live and work in peace. And should we not be proud that here is a generation raring to go out on its own, not dependent on its parents for everything?
No, what do we do? We spoil the party!
Come on! How can these youngsters have this party? We never had it .We never stayed away from homes to create our lives. We never lived independently. Aren’t we going great? Then why do these youngsters need to hit the road alone? Why do they want to take the path not taken by us?
Youngsters want to make a professional life before settling into marriage and family. But we deny them that.If we turn out an entire generation from our colonies, where would they go? We crib and complain about the lack of passion in today’s youngsters but when it is our turn to see their passion, we turn a blind eye.
And in today’s we world we still equate marriage with morality. Ahem! Ahem!
And yes, to all those who are protecting my kids from this culture, I would rather have a strong independent child who tells me that he/she is ready to strike it out on his/ her own.
But will they find a place where singles are not singled out?
