Every year media recapitulates the happenings of the year! We too like to bring to you the glimpses of life and life style, trends and mindsets during 2007. To change things for the better or worse is entirely a matter of personal choice!

We have entered the era of mall-mania, big noise of brands and great offers to part with our money at the click of mouse. Net shopping is a great tool to make you a compulsive spender. Role models are Bollywood biggies, whether for clothes, style or even mannerism… Life is modelled after our favourite stars! Era of live-in, single parents, lonely kids and filing divorce before the first wedding anniversary has arrived. Buddies and bum-chums have superceded blood relationships!. We are progressing by leaps and bounds. Our inspiration is the West! International schools are in! So are the school shoot outs and teenage motherhood! Disco culture is on the wane but Hukkah restaurants and ethnic food joints or international cusines are in!. Oldies including “bearded-buddas” with “great stink” of mind and body cleverly camouflaged with scent of money make many a lingerie clad babe cling to them! The money hungry media splashes such vagaries on the page 3!! Music with senseless masti and meaningless lyrics gives enough inspiration to our youths to turn them into juvenile delinquents.

Mobile has created communication explosion invading one's study time and office hours too! Even teens have turned into liars and cheaters with the new “ear decor” Bluetooth!. Money is in great demand to flaunt the brands and keep the babe-in-arm attached. “Call centre” jobs promising big bucks with unlimited scope for night life, easy virtues and undue pampering are aplenty.

India is free from foreign yoke but a new era of “foreign brands” has turned Indians into great consumer slaves. Without flaunting a brand, youngsters feel shy to move out. Right from hair spray to foot wear and even the undergarment must have a brand tag. Retailing all these products has become a great money spinner. Those born with silver spoon in the mouth or many with golden spoon can afford “branded” life but their spoons or chamchas have either to continue chamchagiri or hunt for over-paid jobs in tele-marketing, BPO's or call centres. Summarily the life style has become the ruling factor in our “LIFE”!. The middle class youngsters can not do without this hi-fly image and go simple. Hence maximum brunt of cultural invasion is brone by them. The value word has lost its real spell or even its spelling. Today it's a great great life of “just chill” and “enjoy” without conscience or care for consequences.

Gracefully rural India is not so mislead! Yet our media invasion has drifted the village bumpkins. They too have become like their counterpart city-pumpkins!After reviewing the life as it is deteriorating, all we need is to sit back with “self” and have a sage pondering on what really life is in its true sense and how to make it worthwhile to be a LIFE worth our salt. Beginning this Leap Year, let's leap forward to LIFE instead of leaping deeper in the dark dungeon of mad masti losing control and command.

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