Not too long ago, at the Satsang in the Art of Living Bangalore Ashram, we were privileged to be spellbound by the melodies of legendary Pandit Jasraj ji. Many people around were busy capturing these volatile moments into their cameras and webcasting them LIVE. 

While I sat there, listening to the traditional music that is pulling my heart into the nostalgic yesteryears era, my eyes were hooked on to the frolics of the technical recording that is pushing my mind into the ‘GenNext’ era. It suddenly occurred to me that Woah! From the conventional to the ultra-modern, my life seems to have traversed through a significant spectrum of time that has witnessed the unique blend of extremes – that of the retrospective tradition and the prospective technology at the same time. 

From crawling in an open bullock cart to zooming past time in superfast Ferrari’s, from waiting for hours to make a short trunk call to having everyone and everything on the fingertips of our Smartphones, from meticulously writing letters on postcards to swiftly ‘dictating’ emails to chatbots, from listening to a remote recording on the fluctuating wavelengths of the radio to the 3D LIVE video streaming apps and websites, from smelling the pages of a newly bought  book to e-reading the intangible content on a kindle, from capturing moments on a camera roll and waiting for days to turn its negatives into colorful albums to seizing the moments instantly in real-time and real-size with DSLR cameras, from having to make a separate ‘shopping trip’ to sitting back and watching the online ordered stuff arrive home, from waiting in long multiple queues for hours to get our transactions recorded in a pass book to automatically tracking the credits and debits making their way into our e-Wallets, from watching movies in the ‘let’s exploit the rental time’ hired VCR’s to downloading a plethora of ‘watch in bits and pieces’ videos that are available anytime, anywhere …. The technology has just surpassed the imagination of magic in the last few decades!

As we flip through the pages on the calendar of this era, what we are experiencing right now is the perfect amalgamation of the ancient and the ultra-modern. While the previous generation has only enjoyed the roots of ancient tradition and the next generation is going to be steeped into advanced trends, we are moving through a unique timeline of the millennial generation that can savour both the nostalgia of the conventional times and inquisitiveness of the innovative times!

Here we are, at the crossroads of a remarkable turning point that will go down in the lanes of golden history as a peculiar landmark.

Come, let’s equip ourselves to make the most of every moment that is offering us the best of both the worlds. After all, time is the most precious and volatile gift of this limited edition called ‘Life’!