No choice over choice

This morning was a great relief when I opened the cupboard to select clothes for the day: reason, I had jettisoned many of the clothes yesterday which left me with very less choice. Having a wide range of choice is supposed to be a sign of prosperity but for the many I know including your's truly it is a sign of complex mental exercise with the end result not always desirable!

I recall quiet times spent in a little English village which had hourly fixed timings for trains and buses and life was so peaceful and predictable. There were no hassles of boarding the 9:02 am train or the 9:07 am train. With no alternatives in hand everything fell in place :-)

When I see parents today pampering their children with so many choices be it food, clothes, games and they in turn being so firm in their own right I feel funny. Having " Bournvita" for one day would mean inviting hell in the house because "Milo" is not available. Going for shopping or eating out or cooking at home or simply anything has such a varied choice that it is not surprising that people prefer to settle for good old "Vanilla" flavour in everything.

There was a time when there would be just on channel on television or radio and people enjoying every moment of it. Today we have a zillion choices on any entertainment medium and most of the time people are just flicking buttons to find something worthwhile. Quantity has definitely gone up but at the irreplaceable cost of quality.

On the other hand I also wonder if we are creating a future generation with very low acceptance levels in all walks of life. With the dwindling level of patience with "others choices", it is no wonder we have more broken homes fueling the construction companies to build more houses, alas not homes. :-(

Comments

scintilla said…
Really nice piece...very true...

Liked the title too.

Keep writing :)
March 1, 2008 at 3:03 PM
Unknown said…
I am quite happy with choices as long as i don't have the dilemma of being faced with 2 choices, both evil. Worse would be, if given the above i choose both! As for broken homes, sometimes the choice is really between the lesser of two evils and not really a question of tolerance.

Amrita
March 1, 2008 at 8:30 PM
Sucha said…
Amrita,

Agree with you, on the evil choices part.
As for broken homes if harmony is maintained by having separate homes it seems to be fine but we do hear of bizzare stuff like homes breaking on choices of television channels, use of computer etc which really set me thinking..

My 2 cents!
March 1, 2008 at 10:43 PM
Sucha said…
Thanks Aditi, you seem to be an expert writer..I am just a beginner :)
March 1, 2008 at 10:46 PM
NiYa said…
it was really nice reading dis... dids coz its given me a choice to realize these imp things which u hav so beautifully penned down these simple but complicated facts....plsss keep writing
March 2, 2008 at 8:30 PM
Venkat said…
Hello, Well I guess all parents try to give more choice to children than what they had as kids. Nothing new.

You and I had more choices as we grew up than our parents had. The present generation has much more than what we had. I guess it is also called Evolution :)

Regarding broken homes, well with high incomes come low tolerance, more freedom. You see it is the women (yeah I am getting ready with my shield armour) with more income, who are causing most of the issue ! The poor man has no choice. Funny it comes back to choice or lack of it !
March 4, 2008 at 1:05 PM
Anonymous said…
Too good Sucha,But i agree with venkat.
May 16, 2008 at 2:32 PM
CRD said…
hey, ur right.today, since we have so many choices, we dont hesitate to discard old things that we once might have treasured.

it holds true in relationships too.instead of sitting down and talking and sorting out issues, we make a haste in breaking off ties and moving on to the next best thing we have in mind.its sad...no wonder ppl have multiple relationships today...im scared to ever fall in love
June 22, 2008 at 11:50 AM
Anonymous said…
Sucha...this one is toooooo good....
would definately like to c this as an article.

anu
October 3, 2008 at 3:53 PM
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