“The sense that our lives are constantly visible to the world, as other people’s lives are visible to us, makes us want to curate our existence.”- A.M. Gautam (Author- Indian Millennials: Who are They, Really?)
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Team Kitaab is in conversation with author A.M. Gautam where we discussed his latest work Indian Millennials: Who are they, really? (Published by Aleph Book Company, 2024)
A. M. Gautam is a writer from Haridwar who lives, for the most part, in Bangalore. He is an alumnus of IIMC and his work has appeared in various Indian as well as international publications. His interests lie primarily in cultural commentary, speculative fiction, and multilingual literary exploration.
About the Book
There are 440 million Millennials (born between 1980 and 1996) in India today. They constitute 34 per cent of the country’s population and 46 per cent of the workforce. They are the chief wage earners in most households. They are the first generation to grow up in a non-socialist economy. Consumerism permeates every single aspect of their lives. The food they eat, the workout regimes they follow, the language they speak, their professed ideological and political beliefs—all these are dictated by capitalism. Great bodies and English-speaking skills are crucial social aspirations—not only to boost their self-worth but also to make them stand out in the fledgling world of Indian dating. They are the first generation tasked with navigating a post-truth world where all assertions are double-faced, elastic, and subject to wilful misinterpretation. All these facets of the Millennial generation are speculated about but poorly understood.
