With the changing times, I find many people who do not consider their age as bottleneck to do things. Many people say that the age is just a state of mind and for doing things they go by mantra ‘better late than never’. So one can find many people around, beyond their fifties, grooming latest fashionable outfits with all kinds of colours and prints, hair styles and accessories. They don’t stop here; instead, they tend to take all kinds of risks including holidays in far-flung destinations, undertake expeditions and adventure sports, including new relationships. Women try to look younger by using all available artificial means and men resort to adventures and hard sports.
I wonder what could be the reasons behind this attitudinal change! The possible reason appears to be the demographic shift which is being experienced world over both in developed and developing countries. In India alone, the average life expectancy, which was around 42 years in 1960, has grown by almost 25 during these years and stands around 67-69 years in July, 2014. This can be ascribed to the tremendous improvement in health services, general prosperity, standards of living and other favourable parameters during this period. One can easily cite celebrities and politicians in their seventies, and even eighties, still professionally doing reasonably well.
But then, can this phenomenon be universally applied? The fact is that with the growing age, agility and flexibility of body tissues starts getting lost. Bones are more prone to breaking than before and any recovery from injury or disease too is quite long. Greying and wrinkling that sets in with age, cannot be stopped by applying all artificial means. At best, the adventurist temperament and spirit can help in sustaining satisfaction level of the person.
Notwithstanding above, I earnestly feel there is no rationale in trying to escape our age. When a person aged sixty behaves like a twenty years old, often it appears ridiculous. Why can’t we just accept our age? We may want it to be inconsequential but we cannot prove biology wrong because of our ideology. This reminds me what Mark Twain once said, “When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it’s a sure sign you are getting old”.
Let us realize that nothing is permanent and stable in this universe. Every living being, animal or plant, grows old and weak to wither and die with time. Therefore, aging with time is so natural and graceful. Besides, this also prepares us for gradual detachment with the worldly order, so that our body and soul finally rest in peace in due time.
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