The thought of Old Age seems to scare a lot of people. It is a sort of a conditioned reflex we could do without in this day and age. Before coming to that, however, let us quickly attempt to define old age in conventional terms first. A 25 year may draw the line at 40 and a 75 year old might suggest 90. So your age + 15 or 20 years could be one reasonable definition of chronological old age. But is ‘Old Age’ just a function of time or are there other variables which can influence its onset? Let us examine the source of fear first. Is it the whisper of Death? Yes and No. Both Gita and Common Sense suggest that worrying about the inevitable is pointless. Health? Of course. As organs and faculties start dimming and fading, some closer relationship with the medical fraternity is inescapable. Again, logic dictates that it needs to be compartmentalised rather than be made a bogey of. You will have to bear your share of it, so you might as well grin and do it.
That leaves the real killer. Loneliness This is the truly feared part of Old Age And yes, the many examples around, especially in these days of nuclear families, of the lonely watch of the ‘last bats(wo)man standing’ do little to allay the fears. The Terminal symptoms, or the variables mentioned earlier, of Old Age are easy to define for a layman:
- A person starts withdrawing inwards and starts losing interest in the outside world. ‘My world’ starts shrinking into ‘my locality’ ‘my family’ and ultimately to ‘me and my packet of biscuit’.
- Loss of Laughter. Laughter truly is the best medicine and someone who can appreciate a good joke, laugh out aloud or sketch out a cartoon is unlikely to be afflicted by Old Age.
If you look around you will see plenty of examples of people overcoming ‘Old Age’.
Shammi Kapoor was almost 80 when he died. Was he old? Hardly. How many 80 year old Foodies do you know who are on Twitter, laugh heartily and enjoy the company of young people? Two examples closer home stand out vividly. An uncle who at 92 happily tends to his handkerchief size garden, plays the flute when he can and curses the Government in his spare time. And the excitement in the eyes of our late grandmother, then 90, when she first tried out a new microwave is the stuff of family legends. Our reaction could be summarized as (with apologies to Gulzaar sahab):
हमने देखी है उन आँखों में सवालों की चमक
भूलकर भी उन्हें बुढ़ापे का इलज़ाम न दो
Most people are not as blessed, true, but hold on. The ‘Terminal’ symptoms of Old Age CAN be avoided The clue lies in a few simple words: Cell phone, Cooking, Painting, Gardening, Reading, Computers, Facebook, Google, Music, Young Friends and now you can add a few of your own. As long as the mind retains its curiosity beyond the immediate ‘self’, it seems to release magic chemicals to ward off Old Age. And in the history of mankind there has never been a time with more easily accessible stimuli to keep the magic flowing. Q.E.D.
+ + +
