old fashioned ethics need to be resurrected !

Kindle, Tabs, Pads and Pods are in, gradually occupying the seat of importance in wealthy local families. It is now the in thing to be seen with either a pad, pod or a tab. Thanks to the Chinese, those who secretly crave to look hip and flow with the crowd, can settle for any of the lower cost smart phones that sometimes can be mistaken for a pad, pod or tab :) I am being catty but I have a Samsung that gives me a good deal on everything I need to stay in touch - frills, ribbons and laces in all, (a used phone by a Japanese who decided to get rid of it after 3 months) and arrived into my life through a trade in deal.

My spring chicken days are gone and I find I am settled with increasingly young colleagues who I deal with at work. Interacting with them, I am deliberately slow to comment to whatever they say because I am pretty curious to understand their pulse and then respond. My answers are often limited to ugh, uuhhm..hmmm and they are happy cause they think they know it all. Well I was in that stage once and that feels like the age of Moses now.!!!

I cannot sometimes connect the dots that reason out to their strange way...the flow of language either does not exist or is stagnant with many that I come across. I wonder if it's because I happen to often move around or bump into youth of the same social strata. Somehow the levels of confidence to express themselves or even speak clearly, concisely or comprehensively does not exist in their system. I wonder if the modern lingo of hi c u later @ 4 has killed the neurons in the brain to be able to construct sentences using a steady flow of sensible words ?

Once seen reading a newspaper I was given odd looks by many with some even snickering what's there to read so much in the paper? I responded with what is not there to read in the paper ? So I gathered that its not cool to be reading off a printed paper, magazine anymore !..I couldn't care less..The only reading that I ever do now, is the different columns in the newspapers.

As a crawling baby my dad read stories to me while I sat like a fat pie, so said my mom. In a way he injected me with an addiction that would stay with me for ever I guess. What began with Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks expanded into Amelia Jane, Famous Five, Secret Seven and Danielle Steele, Jack Higgins, Laurence Sanders, Mary Higgins Clark, Jackie Collins, Sidney Sheldon and finally just plain daily newspapers and a periodical Readers Digest, Time and other magazines.My mom got second hand books for just Rs.2 from an old store. Those stores don't exist anymore and so does the deal for borrowing books for Rs. 2 !!! When she got home with the books she yelled that I should be done with my homework to begin reading the book :)

I never realized it until I began working with younger colleagues increasingly, but trying to reflect on the reasons, maybe that's how I got the hang of the language.When I began school, I also read Sinhala newspapers to build on my vocabulary and language skills. I never went for extra coaching classes to brush up on either of the languages cause without any effort I managed quite well getting good grades :). Extra coaching classes would have been luxury because we couldn't afford it anyway.

Newspapers are the most affordable reading material that is available and being in a country with so much action (puts Hollywood and all the wood thrillers to shame) reading a dose of the insanity that takes place daily around the country provides great entertainment along with some insight into the flow of language maybe new jargon as well.

Kids like me who grew up in the 80's-90's (antique eh?) didn't have tabs, pods or pads but just good old fashioned books which we devoured better than the best pudding :). I am glad I came from an old fashioned herd where knowledge and understanding of the language had taken place unknowingly. I am glad I am not one of the many youngsters today who struggle to express themselves, think they are on a bed of nails when asked to respond to a customer's email, do not know that it is common ethics to respond to a mail, cannot comprehend written messages or even do not know what to do when a customer writes inquiring about this and that. Simply put the levels of competency even to express their own role in the workplace, listening does not exist. Sometimes I feel so worn out just waiting for a response to come in to whatever I have asked for eeeeeeeeee it's a never ending wait and eventually I end up calling and asking if the mail was received ? hellooooo why do I need to do this if we are all on this blessed thing called email that has occupied the most important agenda of our daily lives eh ?

BUT, that said they can type the modern lingo (c u @ 4 cal me g8) at lightening speed and think that is good enough. Technology may have taken over the modes of communication but old fashioned ethics still rule the world of commerce and that will stay putt despite even more advanced pods, pads and tabs replacing the existing brood. 

I see youngsters interacting and observe them quietly, most times their conversations revolve around achieving stardom at work within the shortest possible time. hmmmm interesting I think how can you do this when you don't make an effort to learn the art of finer points, that will always stay putt in the commercial world but get fascinated with an image of a top guy in suit, carrying a laptop..tab and talking over the most expensive phone. Knowing to peck the modern lingo on a pc and talk in the name of chat is never going to get you anywhere in life ? eh there is so much to learn and the strange thing is these keyboard pecking hip hop wired music lovers cannot connect to reality OR is it that in a world where everything just blossoms instantly the take is that we can strike it big in anyway we fashion ? "

My typical working day after dealing with these young nuts puts me through a lot of questions, to which I cannot find the answers to.. I just take extra long walk to toxicate all the residue that builds up after dealing with them.Somehow this old goose ends up being very confused to relate to this trend of development which in no way will help plug this country into being the miracle of Asia as projected by the dons who rule !