Great set of comments with a lot of insights. Its a pity that its buried in comments. Maybe you should write a post on this subject when you find the time.

I think we are slowly becoming as individualistic as the Americans atleast in the metros.

Like you say, interesting times ahead!

Are we Indians naturally more inquisitive than other cultures/societies? Why do we feel no qualms about intruding/interfering into others life? Do we as a society just love to live vicariously through others? Why?

Is it because even though joint family as a concept is on the wane, we still cannot get rid of it emotionally?

Did we inherit this intrusion mentality from our previous generation – born between 1940s and 1960s? They grew up in what I call the ‘public sector culture’ – where most of the jobs (both public and private sector jobs) were a 9 to 5 affair and the job itself was not that satisfying. And a good percentage of the women in the previous generation were stay at home moms. So they had more time in their hands to gossip, intrude into their neighbor/relatives affairs?

I understand that there are some benefits to everyone being everyone else’s friendly neighbor. But still the lack of emotional space can be suffocating.

During my last two trips to India, I was surprised to hear from my friends that some of them did not even know their neighbors names. And even when they did, they interacted mostly on a ‘hi-bye’ basis. But, in such situations, not surprisingly, both partners in the marriage had a job. And these were not the 9-5 types mentioned above. So, the job of having a job and running their home, taking care of their kids kept them more than busy. Any kind of serious socialization was a premium and hence was restricted to their immediate families. Of course, the current generation is also becoming very individualistic.

And as mentioned by both Sukumar and Sreedhar – with the awareness, integration and adoption of good practices in the HR area, things will change for the better.

On a slightly different note: Thinking about generation gap reminded me of the final scene in “Hey Ram” and the generational differences.

Our (people in the 30-50 year range) grand father’s generation had a common goal – Independence. This generation had a cause to fight for and was focused in achieving that.

Once we got the independence – lethargy set in – and this was our father’s generation – which got mired in the ‘public sector culture’. This generation was averse to risk taking and the environment they lived in and a socialist government did not help in this cause.

My generation is the sandwich generation – one that was not that afraid of taking risks, but still had the save first mentality of the previous generation. This generation joined the work force around the same time government started to open its market.

The current generation is what I call the ‘media’ generation – very media savvy, very aware of their individuality and not averse to taking to risks. Looks like this generation also values its independence and self-esteem more than money (or Am I wrong in this?). They seem to realize that, with the market opening up, jobs will come their way – if they work hard. Also, they have started to realize that there are ‘other’ profession besides medical and engineering!! I have heard more than one story where someone gave up their engineering job to pursue another line of work – the one they had real passion for.

Interesting times ahead!!

More importantly, we need more exposure and a heavy dose of common sense. People are not even aware that what they say and do are discriminatory. How else would we fix the “Family women fit better in senior management roles” attitude?