Barricades Of ReverseAgeism We Are Yet To Break

at the age of 18

aren’t you a bit too young to be writing

a book on the coronavirus outbreak

this was the interesting question that i

was asked

in one of my recent interviews after

authoring pandemic 2020

rife of the virus which is not just my

second novel at the age of 18

but also world’s first fiction novel

based on the coronavirus outbreak that

we all are still fighting against

because in the world of today which is

of course so much advanced and so much

modernized

for some people the focus is not on the

title of the youngest

but rather on my tag of being too

young to be doing something the united

nation divides the youngsters or the

youth of today as somebody who falls

within the age group

of 14 to 24 and being a youngster myself

i can completely understand and connect

with the creatively ambitious

socially connected and mentally head

strong mindset of all the fellow

youngsters

listening to me right now and all around

the world but on

all this potential on all this ambition

hits the sledge hammer the sledgehammer

of youthism

or as i like to call it reverse ageism

now ageism is a term which is quite

known right we all know what it means

it is basically the discrimination of a

person or prejudicing of a person based

on how old they are

or their age in general that is what the

term ageism refers to

but the more horrendous term over here

especially in the world of today

is that of youthism or reverse ageism

which is what my talk is all about

basically youthism is just the contrary

of what we have just spoken about

youthism is the prejudicing or

discrimination of a youngster

based on how young they are because even

after

our nation in particular is going to

become the youngest one

by the end of this year and in fact the

world as a whole

also majorly depends on the youth of

today

because they are in fact the

torchbearers of our global future

still to some degree being a youngster

myself

what i feel is that the youth on a

global level are

generally i would say majorly i can call

it

they are deemed as a little bit too lazy

a little bit too snobby

a little bit too cranky or just too much

addicted to the technology which i

believe

every person is in the world of today

irrespective of how old or young they

are

or my personal favorite and the worst of

all i would say

not experienced enough the youngsters of

today

are in most of the cases deemed too

inexperienced to be speaking about the

social issues

speaking about the cultural problems let

alone

working on them this is the sheer

reality right in front of us

that most of us do not even acknowledge

i remember that odd day from 2018 just

two years back

when i was 16 years old and i was

sitting right next to my laptop

with a now completed manuscript of my

internationally acclaimed awarded debut

novel

a celebration in tribulation which of

course eventually it

turned out to be but back then when the

book wasn’t even published and i was

this

simple 16 year old guy with an ambition

to get his

first book published at a young age i

wasn’t sure what it was going to become

right

it was sort of a make it or break it

face for me on a social level

as well on a psychological level so

the response from this literary platform

that i had contacted the previous day

did come the screen of my laptop did pop

up

and i must have jumped in exhilaration

and excitement

but when i opened that email from this

literary platform that i had contacted

it read dear yash we are very excited to

receive your submission

and we are glad to see your passion

towards literature as well

but seeing that you are just 16 years

old

we are not absolutely sure whether you

have any sort of clarity

or idea about the subject matter or not

it was shocking and of course it must

have been saddening back then

but all i remember responding to that

particular

youthism-driven email was that i’m glad

to receive your response and thankful

for your consideration

but did you even read my manuscript

did you even read what i had written and

that was it

of course i never received a response

after that but

in retrospect now when i look back at

that particular day

i feel that if i personally as a 16 year

old

back then had given in to the barricades

or should i say

the outdated ideology of youthism and

reverse ageism

just because somebody out there in the

world did not even check

out how much potential i had or how much

capacity i had

just because i was 16 years old i would

have never started to live the journey

that i am living right now

or be on the international platforms

that i am

right now as an international youth

mentor or a mental health awareness

advocate

where i get to not just address but even

guide

and mentor thousands of youngsters every

day

around the world the truth is that we

feel as if these barricades of we can

say discrimination or prejudices based

on the age

caste creed color race gender whatever

it might be

they are only present in the developing

countries that is not true i can assure

you

if you research about these

discriminatory topics to some degree

especially about youthism i would say

the age-driven prejudices

in our society you will understand that

this

youthism or the barricades of ageism is

just like some sort of vehicle i would

say

which is not fueled by the cultures of a

community

whatsoever but it is entirely driven by

the stereotypical ideology or should i

call it

the outdated stereotypical ideology of

the very society

that we are living in right now you will

find that in the most developed

countries

a company like a hypothetical example i

would say

a company which might have somewhere

around 50 000 employees

and at least 40 percent out of which

might be youngsters

the stereotypical ideology of youth ism

can

in fact result into intergenerational

communication gaps

work issues and eventually into billion

dollar problems

annually every year and in the

developing countries like ours itself

you will find that the youthism or the

age-based discrimination

can result into cruel scenarios like

human trafficking

human cruelty human abuse or much

more horrendous than we can possibly

ever imagine

you wouldn’t find these barricades of

youthism or the age-based discrimination

only in the developing countries like

india china

or brazil but also in the most developed

countries like the us

the japan or even canada

but if this is the reality of the world

of today the sheer reality as i call it

then another reality that we need to

address is that

of the solution because whenever there

is some or the other social issue

personally being an optimist myself i

always try to look for the solutions for

them

and when it comes to the barricades of

youthism that the

overall development and growth of our

youngsters is

inhibited by is stopped by or obstructed

by

the best solution according to me

personally is that

of the rule of 4a now my rule of 4a

is all about these four words that

simply define to us

how we can tackle the barricades of

youthism or reverse ageism

the age-based discrimination in the

developing world of today or should i

say not just tackle

but even eradicate them completely out

of this world

the first a is all about acknowledging

i can either say that climate changes

and the environmental issues

are a concern for the society or i can

say

that the climate change and the

environmental concerns

are also a problem for me personally and

i as an

individual need to take a step for it i

need to start acknowledging that it is

not just the

society as a whole that is being

impacted but i personally

my growth my life myself is being

impacted by that

particular social issue that is what we

need with the youthism as well

we see youngsters saying that you know

youth in general is

subjugated youth in general is subjected

to discrimination of some sort or the

other

or whatever it might be but how many of

them

personally individually turn up to say

that yes i have been affected by it and

i need to take a step for it

this is what we need to remember when it

comes to the social issues like the

age-based discrimination

or youthism in particular that we need

to start

acknowledging the effects of it on us as

an individual and start working on that

personally

secondly adapt whenever we are talking

about any sort of workplace or the

academic place or wherever people are

coming together and congregating

to get things done we have to understand

that there are going to be people from

different

walks of life different categorizations

of life

different generations and whatnot and

when different generations come together

we also have to remember that every

generation

communicates in a different manner

interacts in a different manner

works in a different manner and

functions in a different manner as well

the youngsters cannot simply go on to

say that the elder ones

have no idea about the modern technology

or they are not in touch with the modern

world

and the elder ones cannot simply go on

to say that the youngsters are too

lazy too snobby or way too addicted to

their mobile phones

we need people from different

generations to collaborate

as well as adapt to one another’s

differences

or should i call it as the uniqueness

within each generation

whenever people are coming together we

need to start

adapting to one another’s uniqueness

whether it is about the work ethics or

it is about the communication skills of

whatever it might be

let us try to adapt to one another

the third a is all about appreciation

i was going through the interview this

interview of alexandria ocasio-cortez

who is one of the youngest

representatives

of the congress in the united states and

it was

wonderful i i truly felt i would say

inspired by the way

in which she was speaking about the

social issues but when i scrolled in the

comment box of that video

what i found out was that ten percent of

the comments were in fact about

appreciating that we have this youngster

who’s trying to do something

but the remaining ninety percent were

just about let’s say bashing her or

trolling her or saying

that she’s too young to be speaking

about these social issues in the first

place this is what we need to start

working on

as well we need people from all walks of

life

to not just uh we can say acknowledge or

accept

but also appreciate the fact that the

youth of today they might not be very

experienced

but they at least are trying to explore

this world they at least are trying to

make this world

better than it is right now or it has

ever been in past

so we need to start appreciating the

steps taken by our youth

and the fourth a is all about affirming

as a youngster your duty is not just to

argue about the fact that the people

are prejudicing on you or they are

discriminating you or whatever it might

be

as a youngster it is also your duty to

prove that you are worth it

because i as an 18 year old whenever i

get on a stage and see

audience members who might be twice or

thrice as old as i am right now

who might be in the 30s or 40s or even

70s or 80s or 90s

i don’t start arguing with them when

they roll their eyes

when they see me for the first time

rather i prove my potential or should i

say

i affirm about my potential and my

caliber and my experience

through my voice through my words

through my action

that is what you need to do as well stop

arguing about what is right and wrong

all the time

try to prove about yourself as well

through your works and through your

voice

we need to understand that from this

point onwards

whether the youngsters who are listening

to me right now they give

in to the barricades of youthism or they

fight against it

that is totally in their hands and we

also need to understand

that the youth of today can create a

huge difference if they come together

to stand for what is right and what is

wrong in this world

so in the end i would like to quote mary

mcleod bethune who once rightly remarked

we have a powerful potential in our

youth and we must have the courage

to change old ideas and practices so as

to direct it towards good ends