Saturday Feeling: For Gen Z, freedom is about living without fear

One of the first films I watched soon after I finished college and started work—living alone in a new city as a reporter and with friends to take up every free moment—was Dil Chahta Hai. Bangalore of the early 2000s was far removed from Sydney, Mumbai or Goa, but as Raja Sen writes of the film that released 25 years ago, it was “an advertisement for the youth we wanted”, even though we had it far, far better than most our peers.

“You have it so good” has tended to be the prevailing sentiment when older generations talk down to the younger when they ask for more or express themselves. It’s nearly three weeks since the barricades were taken down, the murals washed away and the memes replaced on our algorithms, but the month of protests at Jantar Mantar and the backlash are still vivid enough to feel like they’re of the moment. In that spirit of self-expression, for our 15 August issue, we asked Gen Z what Independence Day means to them. It’s a day entwined with freedom, and naturally, the young people we spoke to gravitated towards this ideal, and it became our list of the ten freedoms Gen Z wants.

At the heart of what Gen Z wants is the freedom to live without fear, much like the hundreds of thousands of young people who resisted the British did. Gen Z may have different words for what they want to break from—labels, judgement, conformity, friction, silence, feeling compromised—but it’s really about getting a fair chance to become their own person. It’s the same idea that ran though the recent protests—the demand to be allowed to live in a way that’s true to who they are without fear of any kind.

Gen Z hits pause with grandma hobbies

Older teenagers and twenty-somethings are deliberately pursuing pastimes that require them to stay offline and work with their hands such as knitting, crochet, gardening, pickling, baking and embroidery, the painstaking slowness of the activity providing a counterpoint to the relentless speed of their lives. While many embraced analogue activities during the pandemic, plenty of teens and twenty-somethings have continued long after lockdowns. The chance to engage the brain and create something tangible is a strong draw for a generation raised amid digital noise, writes Reem Khokhar. Read more.

Tipsy pudding in the Army mess

For Army kids, few dishes inspire as much nostalgia as tipsy pudding. Served at formal dinners and celebrations in army messes, it is a classic example of making do with what you have. The trifle-like dessert with cake, jam and fruit has a loyal fan following, and generations of fauji families recreate it in their own kitchens. Tanu Ganguly traces the evolution of Indian Army mess food, which hasn’t changed too much through the years, and is remembered fondly by those who have eaten it. Read more.

Partition’s impact on Tyeb Mehta’s art

Described by poet Ashok Vajpeyi as ‘the most political painter of his time’, artist Tyeb Mehta drew from the darkness of the past and the violence of the present to depict civilisational injustices in his art, writes Somak Ghoshal. A new book, which accompanies an exhibition to mark his centenary year, delves into Mehta’s unique approach to figuration. The artist, who witnessed Partition, spent the rest of his life trying to come to terms with the way it had slashed through lives. Read more.

Off-roading SUVs are going electric

Mercedes-Benz launched its electrified G-wagon in India last year. Barring the green number plates, the Mercedes-Benz G580 EQ Technology Edition One seemed very much like its petrol counterpart. It’s been on Indian roads for a year but is it capable of “serious offroading”? Shouvik Das took the electric SUV out for a drive to the arid, bumpy tracks of Khetri, Rajasthan, a route with sporadic charging spots, expanses of dust, and sudden stretches of broken roads to find out. Read more.

Using a second home to reset

For some city dwellers, a second home in the hills or on a farm is not merely an investment but a way to create an alternative lifestyle. Rather than treat it as a space for a vacation, a number of urban Indians are using it to experiment with a way of life they can’t pursue in the city, writes Anjali Kochhar. For an entrepreneur that could mean farming during weekends, for a dancer, it could be trying a gurukul-like setting for classes. Read more.

A level-headed Indo-Pak war series

This is a series that I’m just three episodes into, and so far, I agree with Uday Bhatia’s review that concludes it’s an unusually level-headed piece of pre-Independence Day war propaganda. Set in the late 1990s, as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif met for historic peace talks in Lahore, it follows the Indian Air Force’s Golden Arrows squadron into the Kargil War, engineered almost simultaneously by General Musharraf. Abhijeet Singh Parmar and Kushal Srivastava’s six-episode Netflix series Operation Safed Sagar occasionally drags and doesn't shun its propaganda duties, but it's a rare war narrative that keeps a cool head and focuses on strategy, processes and individual skill. Read more.