Young, free, and loved

August 12 was International Youth Day a day to discuss Indiarsquos much touted demographic dividendEarlier Ashok Sopan Dhole who taught Hindi at Symbiosis College for 18 years was suspended because a student put out a video of his lecture where he discusses different deities This brought in the ABVP hurt sentiment brigade Some students also gave a statement of their offencemdashwhether voluntary coerced or simply herd mentality who knowsThe mental health organisation Mindpeers released findings of a study which revealed that 70 per cent of 72000 plus youth they surveyed were highly stressed Anxieties revolved around money fading friendships ageing parents and poor selfworth making work and connection both difficultOlder people might feel a little more stable in some respects But they too experience the deep loneliness that has set into society where building community and keeping connection is harder for multiple reasons economic cultural and politicalThe Symbiosis incident emphasises how our political context makes connection a difficult habit to learn however All of life has become a competition of distrust a bullies debate The purpose of interaction is to trip others up in order to feel powerful never giving in to the vulnerability of trust We will not even argue our points in a classroom but merely use video and social media to bring out the bullies This is the primary idea of power provided by the dominant political culture todaymdashwhich pervades social media critique of all colours Denouncement is the inevitable denouementThe youth who bully a teacher might imagine themselves powerful for a minute But they also exist within this same culture of suspicion scrutiny and judgement they are carrying out and the miasma of dread it createsWhen politically and digitally meanings are predecided the possibility of connection is foreclosed Political disagreement cannot be passionately argued because even that is a form of connecting to anotherrsquos thinking and ideas There can only be instantaneous decision and division What then is the possibility of finding meaning of moving through connections and disconnections to an understanding of oneself and others Without it connections become instrumental meant to staunch fear not build communities That young people worry so much about money has something to do with the economymdashbut also something to do with the idea that we have no worth but what we earn and no other kind of resources to sustain usAlso readAs Maha govt pussyfoots on PoP ban natureforward bappa bhakts find idol greener than even shaaduIdeas of selfcare and boundaries serve a purpose but also hover uneasily close to the idea of political denouncement To see others as a threat and seal oneself off often becomes a default choice To say lsquothis is not working for mersquo is quick and hermetic moving with the unknownmdashin love work or friendshipmdashvulnerable and slow Rejection becomes our idiomParomita Vohra is an awardwinning Mumbaibased filmmaker writer and curator working with fiction and nonfiction Reach her at paromitavohramiddaycom