A Septuagenarian's Outlook on Life
New
Indian Express, May 2, 2013
A septuagenarian’s look at
existence
02nd May
2013 07:59 AM
Exit from
this world is certain for all, but while in your teens, the probability of
having to call it quits and depart any time any day does not nag you
significantly. However, once you cross the Biblical span of three score and
ten, you suddenly feel you have to pack. Till fifty or even sixty, one dreams,
hopes, plans and acts but into seventy, one undergoes a metamorphosis; one
feels a reasonable certainty about the hour for the swansong that hitherto
loomed only in the shadows. One gets a hunch one can almost count the hours —
nay, minutes — left for the sands to run out.
Stoicism
sets in. Boredom takes over. Neither hopes nor fears goad the mind
that has passed through the best of times and the worst of times. After
all, what momentous event can be expected or feared in the next five years,
three years, two years! Indifference reigns supreme in all your thoughts, words
and deeds. In your younger days, you used to spend sleepless nights worrying
why one of your casual acquaintances who always greeted you with a respectful
smile was indifferent on a particular day. But now you have learnt to
nonchalantly jettison all such non-events; in fact, in the other extreme, you
even become apathetic to the extent of ignoring men and matters,
confident that such alienation would “pass by you like an idle wind which
you respect not’’.
Your
“withdrawal symptoms’’ show in the way you start shunning social functions.
Days when, on occasions like marriages, deaths and so on that see friends and
relatives flocking together, you used to pick up the old threads with gusto and
enjoy re-living the good old times, spiced with vociferous banter and
back-slapping, are gone for ever, never to come back.
When the
ebullient youngsters indulge in their pet pranks, fun and frolic in your
presence, you inwardly sing with the bard, “Lord, what fools these mortals
be!’’ In audible silence, you tell them: “Don’t be oversmart, kids. I
have also passed through these stages and I know all this is just sound and
fury signifying nothing.’’ May be because you are in your second childhood, you
might develop an increased affinity and affection towards children.
You find
yourself capable of vibing well with them, relating to them. Appetite wanes.
Gluttons who, in the past, lived to eat, not ate to live, push away their
plates untasted. The change is biological as well as psychological — mostly the
latter. The horse that galloped unstoppable with virile sinews and an
indefatigable spirit has gradually started gasping.
Limbs, as
well as the mind, fall into the lap of lassitude. And, as Shakespeare put it,
we remain “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything’’. A rare few are
granted the luxury of colourful dreams during the mid-day nap. “Recollections
in tranquillity’’ afford me adequate compensation. And for this reason, I am a
contented septuagenarian.
*
C Divakaran is an exrbite based in Thiruvananthapuram
Comments(6)
One of the best
article from the author. The concluding remarks, “Recollections in
tranquillity’’ afford me adequate compensation. And for this reason, I am a
contented septuagenarian , is very apt and true. Narayanan
Silliest
article. Drawing generalization on negative aspects of ageing, psychologically
speaking, and offering them on a platter as a must have situation for all
septuagenarians is wrong. See Fauza Singh, Khuswant Singh and many others. Both
are above a hundred years of age. One is running a marathon and the other is
still writing novels and is always at his funniest best. I know many
octogenarians who are as positive and active as they were in their fifties.
Time to move
away from dampening Shakespearean thoughts and proceed on to grasp, follow the
thoughts of Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansaji, Adi Shankara, Swami Vivekananda,
Ramana Maharishiji or any other great man of one's preference; one's batteries
could be recharged anyday any time. Just a matter of situational perceptions
apart from undergoing a Master Health Checkup in a corporate hospital and
taking further treatments as advised by the senior physician there;Many
hobbies, choices exist depending upon one's inclinations. Think of lesser
privileged mortals. There are people in their eighties and nineties still
enjoying their lives. This is the bonus period of the author's life; and he can
enjoy, live this remainder bonus spell life the way he wants to live, after
weighing afresh various options available to him. One hopes he keeps on writing
and reminiscing on various varied happenings, incidents etc. Here is wishing
him best of health, times for a decade or two more..
Yes it is
packing time for me as I am going to touch eighties in another year. But that
makes me only over active to give finishing touches to things to be completed,
especially in the fields of reading, thinking,writing and sharing. Was waiting
anxiously for my visa to heaven from my sixties, did an awful lot in all fields
during this waiting time and I feel happy to continue doing the same to share
what God has helped me to experience. Happy to go any time the call comes and
happy to be up and doing my best till then.
That is the true spirit of a true
man of art.
The article has
served its purpose, if the purpose was to provoke thoughts. One need not worry
too much about the one final thing that is death, as no one has left this
planet alive so far. World outside is not as bad as the media pictures for you.
There will be many kids waiting for your smile, even after you are toothless!
There are many who would like to hold on to your hand even when your limbs are
weak. Enjoy life.
Comments