Why India's youth is thrilled with the demonetisation

There seems to be a major difference in the way the younger generation has looked upon the move by the government to demonetize high currency notes.

Many older people are quite resentful and angry about this sudden and unexpected turn of events - especially the ones who have lost a lot of their ill gotten wealth which they had hoarded as cash over the years . Since they can't openly say that they are upset because all their money has disappeared, they therefore shed crocodile tears on behalf of the poor villagers who have to stand for hours in line to collect their cash; or worry about how this is going to affect the kirana store owner; or the housewife who had stored money under her mattress for emergencies.

The reality is that they never felt that anyone would have the courage to get rid of black money in India. After all, the rich and powerful in India all had lots of black money, so who in their right sense would make it impossible to hoard it at the stroke of a pen? Now that it's happened, they need to come to terms with it. The old style of getting their work done by greasing palms is not going to work, and they are going to have to learn how to be upright .

The younger generation doesn't have this baggage. All of us raise our children to be moral and upright citizens. When they see us bribing the police officer; or hoarding money; or giving them cash to spend on buying expensive baubles, I wonder what they think of us. They are confused, because what we do and what we say are so different. I am sure they must be laughing behind our backs at our hypocrisy - and perhaps this is one of the reasons why the youth do not respect their elders - because they can see how corrupt and crooked we are.

On a short term basis, many rich kids are now learning the value of money, because they can no longer splurge it. They are learning to stay at home instead of hanging out at malls and bars ; and eat at the vada pav stall, instead of the Starbucks, and this is all for the best !

Lots of the brightest Indian students still want to migrate to the West , because they can not put up with the daily corruption which characterises daily life in India . They are sick and tired of the special privileges which are doled out to the rich and politically connected. These students are very pleased that this move will help to reduce black money and corruption . They now have a much better chance of becoming rich in this country without having to be crooked. I am confident lots of them will not migrate; and that many students in US and UK universities will want to come back to India, once the system gets cleaner, fairer and above board.