We all know how distressing it’s been for a while now, don’t we? House after house, street after street of middle class neighbourhoods around town, all empty of young people. Yes, it’s been like that for years now, ever since the “Troubles” began. A generation, no less, has had its entire life changed by the harsh fact of insurgency and terrorism, and the resultant educational and economic backwardness that this region has been plunged into.

Don’t we all remember those dark days when academic life was in such shambles that young people routinely fell back a year or even two from their peers in the rest of the country during their school and college lives? That too, for no fault of their own. In the highly competitive world of today, it was heartbreaking to see bright young people deprived of academic and career opportunities. No wonder, parents around the State pulled together whatever resources they could to send their children out of the region to study. And naturally, when the job scene was so grim in here, it was inevitable that the children stayed on there to work.

The railway stations of those times were grim reminders of the reality. Train after train would leave for distant places such as Delhi, Pune or Bangalore, carrying away the youth of this State to brighter opportunities. The parents, left behind in the filthy stations, would hold back their tears till the train had pulled out. It was only after they were sure that they were not visible to their children any more that they would break down, weeping helplessly, knowing that the situation in their own place was such that it was unlikely that their children would ever come back permanently here.

True, young people are restless, always moving about for opportunities around the world. But the point here is that for so many years now, the youth of this region has not had a choice. They have left, not because they wanted to try out something else, a little different, somewhere else, but because there was nothing for them here. No scope for a fine education in a good institution, no chance of bagging a well paying, challenging and satisfying job. They left to study, but stayed on because there was no future here.

Of course, young people are still going out in large numbers to study. And indeed they should, for barring one or two honourable exceptions, most of our institutions of higher education are pretty much abysmal. No matter how good or sincere the teachers – and teaching talent abounds here – there is precious little they can do with such outdated syllabi. In any case, exposure is always a good thing for the youth.

And yes, the fact still remains that many of them still do not even consider returning to the land of their birth after completing their education. This is in contrast to previous generations. Fewer young people by far had the opportunity to study outside the State in the past, compared to today. Yet, a large percentage of them did come back, to enrich the region with their work, either as entrepreneurs or job holders.

And yet…and yet…

A small glimmer, a tiny sliver of light seems to be appearing these days at the end of the dark tunnel of despair. It’s a butterfly of hope, so fragile that a single act of terror is likely to make it fly away again, this time perhaps for ever.

But the fact remains …

A young girl, having just graduated with excellent results from a premier college in Delhi, after considering her options, decides to come back to Assam. Previously, the route this girl would have followed was to take a loan, go abroad, get a fancy degree, and either stay on there to work, or come to Bangalore or Delhi to build a career. Today, she has come back to work with an NGO here. She has reasoned it all out with a great deal of clarity. She has always wanted to work with a good NGO, and offers were certainly not lacking in Delhi. But her family lives here. Besides, though the salary she will be getting, at least in the beginning, will be smaller than what she would have got in Delhi, living expenses will be much less here, since she will be staying with her parents. In any case, life here is so much easier. And yes, there is also the undeniable fact that the quality of life in one’s hometown, and especially in Guwahati, is so much better than in the metros.

She is not the only one to make a conscious decision to return. A fresh Chartered Accountant, after considering excellent job offers from all around the country, has decided to work with a large telecom company in this city where his family lives. He is not glamour struck with the big cities, and knows, as do several of his friends who have also returned here, the advantages of being a big fish in a small pond. Besides, living here gives him time to indulge his passion for music. And yes, he knows that the Guwahati of today is now very much on the national radar. One can make an impact, nationally, in many spheres of life, even if one lives and works here. Especially, one might say, if one lives and works here. One needs to be rooted in a place in order to be able to raise one’s voice and have one’s say. The anonymity of a big city rarely gives young people the confidence or the power to make themselves felt in any other way except as a cog in a wheel. Whereas in smaller places, one can be the wheel itself.

Of course it’s true that not everyone has the option to come back here to make one’s career. It’s just that the choices today are slowly becoming larger than they were in the recent past. With so many excellent companies opening regional offices here, with the internet making it possible to work in a place far away from the parent firm, it is becoming possible for young people to get good jobs here itself. Besides, there are those people whose parents have a small or medium scale business establishment, painstakingly nurtured with much blood and sweat all through the troubled decades of the immediate past. These days, younger people quite often recognize and honour the toil and labour that went into the making of it, by deciding to come back and make their life here, to build up the business into the next generation.

There is also the fact that those who do decide to come back have usually seen through the glamour of the big cities to the tough life that exists underneath. These young people are apt to be from better off families, those who have always travelled around the country and abroad. They are unlikely to be attracted to the glitz of the metros, and are seduced instead by the quiet charm of their smaller-town homes. They are the ones who have realized that “There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.”

All Things Considered, it is of course true that this trend is just a tiny trickle at the moment. Yet, one lives in hope that soon, the youth of the land will decide in ever larger numbers to stay on here, to make their lives and careers. Only then can one hope for the development of our State to take place at a more respectable pace.

MITRA PHUKAN