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