Gen-X high on relationship days

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Friday , May 09, 2008 at 2334 hrs Come Mother’s Day on May 11 and youngsters throng shops across the city to buy their choicest of cards and surprise their moms. Days like Father’s Day, Best Friend Day, Rose Day, Valentine’s Day and many more such days are being increasingly observed with fervour by Gen-X.

“But when dealing with relationships, do we really need the dates to remind us about the bonds we share in our personal lives?” asked Pradip Basu, joint director, centre for studies in social sciences, Kolkata. Samiara Sen lives as a paying guest in south Kolkata though her home is in this city. Her reason to stay on her own is that she needs to meet her family only on weekends, and not everyday after college. But she never forgets to wish her mother on Mother’s Day (May 11), her father on Father’s Day (June 22) and her sister on Sister’s Day (May 2).

“I love my mother very much. Mother is god in the lips and hearts of children,” Samiara says though she does not consider spending quality time with her mother, working in a bank. “What are we achieving by sending cards when we dump our parents in old-age homes in their later lives; when we think that our old grandparents are old furniture that needs to be discarded?” says Basu. “Increase in the observation of these days is nothing but marketing strategy to catch hold on the peppy generation to make money. It hurts to see that relationships have become a commodity with a price tag,” he said.

Basu added that the trend of sending e-cards and SMSes are taking a toll on the real meaning of relationships. “Emotions are slowly vanishing from the heart,” he lamented. The list of days are endless with the likes of Boss Day (16 October) andHair Stylist Day (April 30).