The last time he smiled.

There was a time when he desperately waited for his dad to return from office so that they both can go up to the terrace and count the stars. And now, there is a time when he still waits for his dad to return from the office so that he can drop him to his friend’s home as they both have to make a presentation that is supposed to be submitted the next day. Yesterday he met that same old friend of his who told him, “Great was the time when getting high meant on a swing. When drinking meant apple juice, when dad was the onlyhero, when love was mom’s hug and when dad’s shoulder was thehighest place on Earth. When your worst enemies were yoursiblings, when the only thing that could hurt were skinned knees, when the only things broken were your toys and when goodbyes only meant till tomorrow!” But now, he is so busy that he doesn’t even have the time to relax. After listening to him, he asked himself, when did he last saw the stars and after thinking for a while, his inner voice replied, “It was during the winters of Class IXth”. After listening to this, he asked his inner voice, “Why?” and it gave him the reasons.

He came to class Xth and his parents started pressurizing him to study so that he could beat that score which his cousin has got and emulate him by getting himself admitted to the country’s best school. Also his teachers wanted him to score well so that they can add another name to the list of their best students. As a result, Studies became his ultimate seduction. He studied day and night, and he managed to stand up to his parent’s expectations and was admitted to that school. He still dreamed of counting the stars some day.

In that school, he came across the best of students which increased the competition level. He started believing in himself. His greed increased and he worked even harder so that he could make it to that college about which, his father always discussed with him when they use to count the stars. He was a brilliant student. His parents, his relatives, his teachers and his friends had high expectations from him and just to stand up to their expectations, he burnt the midnight oil. He was so preoccupied with books that he doesn’t have the time to even dream about going to the terrace and counting the stars.

His hard-work paid off and he made it to that college. The school life had made him so greedy that he always wanted to be the best. Since, he wasn’t God-gifted so he had to work and work hard and even harder. In the day, he’ll be attending the lectures. In the afternoon, he’ll be on the phone discussing about his project with his friends. In the evening, people can find him on the football field, saving goals for his team. In the night, he’ll be flirting with the guitar while rehearsing with his band. At the stroke of the midnight hour, he’ll be in his senior’s room playing online games and beyond that stroke; he’ll be snorting in his room. Now, he doesn’t even remember that there is a sky above and that he use to count the stars.

Although his life has become monotonous and mechanical and he himself petulant, but he still is incredulous about it. The strains have improved and with these strains, came the stresses. Perhaps other things have taken over him and it seems he has no time to count the stars.

But who exactly is this he?? ‘He’, here refers to you, me and every other teenager who is mentally tired, stressed out and wants a big break from his life but finding it hard to accept this. The “so called” Gen-X is working really hard to survive in this competition oriented scenario. It seems we are raising a generation of burnt out teenagers. This also reminds me of Charles Darwin’s theory of ‘Survival of the Fittest’ but if the survival is proving so costly, I’ll rather prefer to remain unfit then stressing out now so that I could die strain-lessly.