I was only in eleventh standard then, barely sixteen and I consumed Osho with a rare passion. "But, Osho is only for adults, grown-up people", my teacher stressed. "Madam, but I understand what he says. I love his views", I said. "You might understand him alright, but you are not old enough for reading Osho." she said. "But madam, I am only two years away from being legally an adult."
My english teacher was a very kind lady, and her gentleness was stressed by the soft cotton clothing she always wore to work. "No, no, no. You are not old enough to read any philosophy until you are twenty-eight." In her mild mannered voice, she informed me emphatically that during these teen years philosophy was off-limits. That winter, I learnt a lot of things. And somewhere among them, the fact that even near-perfect people didn't like to accept emotional maturity or scholarship in teenagers.
Two years later, the fact hasn't changed. Ageism -- discrimination on the basis of age, has chosen me as one of its bewildered targets. "Behave your age, girl" – guests coming home yell at me in an effort to keep me out of their conversation. (There are, of course, people who have a certain respect for attitude, skill and knowledge wherever they spot it – some kind of glorious exceptions). The rest are, however, not so easy to handle. They would prefer to call you "raw" and "unripe" as if they are in the fruit market. You know you are being subjected to age-based prejudice when some people talk condescendingly about the wisdom that comes with age. As if to show you your place, they believe the myth that every pensioner is an enlightened being. And sometimes, when your young, it is proper to shut up.
Most often, teenagers take ageism against young people for granted. Some dismiss it indifferently as a rite of passage. Those who are affected often believe that these incidents are one of a kind. They are not. While ageism against the old is being argued about in a major manner, there are few takers who really look into cases of discrimination against the teens. What everybody fails to realise is the harm that such a kind of labelling will cause to the next Generation X.
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