Ten days of observation of young people

It is amazing to see the smile, enthusiasm, and joy in the face of young people. After visiting friends and relatives that I have not seen since 1981, I came back to Chennai. Purchase of land is a serious issue. Many have been cheated with bogus documents. If one has a good attorney, the attorney is able to nail down bogus documents. My first cousin had a church building; the church paid for the property and built the church; after the church was built (someone waited for the building to be completed), the church was evicted saying that the sale was not legal. Now the church members are renting a school building. So, every where I go, people talk about such incidents and people are very cautious about purchase of land and other real estate. I have also learned that some have built houses and even multistory buildings on government land (encroachment).

Young people are very different. I was in a coffee shop similar to Starbucks; however I should admit that the cakes and pastries were very tempting and attractive for the eyes. My group was the only odd group due to age. All of us were close to 50 or more. Rest of the three groups in that coffee shop were teens and twenties. No one spoke in Tamil. Every one was talking very loudly in English; none of them was in any Indian costume (not even churidhar by girls). Every one's clothing was western (tshirt and a pant). They were very joyful. Talking about expense, I had to pay five times the cost of a coffee in that shop. Coffee is usually ten rupees in restaurants. In that shop, coffee was fifty rupees. Tea costs thirty five rupees. So, these young people may come from upper middle class, I guessed.

I met a few college students who are frustrated with busy schedules, travel time from home to college, exam schedules, and the heavy cost of admission to engineering and medical colleges. However, every one I met was in a college of nursing, medicine, or in electrical and electronic engineering or they are attending an IT institute to get additional diplomas and certifications in IT. Some of them said that they did not want to study for another eight years to become a doctor, and so they chose to go to IT engineering so that they can attend a campus tour (companies come to college campuses to recruit high skilled workers) to get a job as soon as they graduate. In fact, many in master's program do a final project (real world experience). The students put forth their best so they can be hired by the company where they do the project. I have learned about new issues faces by the youth in India.