Don’t let age creep up on you

COVID-19 has brought special focus on age 65 plus. It is attracting additional care and comfort, which is a blessing. When this number is considered ‘old’, with deficiencies and the start of decay, it becomes debatable. When does ageing start? When there was no time-measuring instrument or calendar, how was age determined? There were solar or lunar years, but how was chronological period evaluated?

As per Vedic texts, there were four stages of life: brahmacharya (student life); grihastha (householder); vanaprastha (retired from active life); and finally, sannyas (renunciation). Lifespan was generally accepted to be 100 years, divided into four stages. Thus grihastha would be over by 50 years, followed by retirement, and then, sannyas at 75, until departure at 100.

In modern times, this phasing is not relevant. Today, at 50, no one’s family duties, business or professional activities are over. In fact, they are at the peak. Similarly, most people are active at 75 and continue with their lives, not yet ready to detach themselves.

Fauja Singh, 101 years old in 2012, became the oldest marathon runner. A sickly teenager, BKS Iyengar, through yoga, lived till 95. Oscar Swahn, a Swedish shooter — at 64 — became the oldest ever to win an Olympics medal and continued to participate up to 72 years of age. Mann Kaur, starting at 93, holds world records in the over-100 year categories in a variety of track and field athletics events. At 103, she is going great guns. Age was no barrier to them. Only their minds determined the limits. For them, age was just a number.

Medical science is developing fast. Stem cell technology, tissue banks and organ transplants are here, and the success rate is not too far. It also depends on what kind of life we will like to lead — quality or quantity, or both.

Hopefully, within a year or two, the vaccine for Covid-19 will win the war over the deadly virus. During this period, the elderly people will have to be watchful. Once they are in the winning team, they can recall the story of Winston Churchill. On his 75th birthday celebrations, a photographer approached him, saying, ‘Sir, I hope I can also attend your centenary celebrations.’ Churchill’s quick retort was, ‘Why not. To me you look young enough!’

Is old age a boon or bane? Einstein had summed up succinctly, ‘I have reached an age when, if someone tells me to wear socks, I don’t have to.’ Indeed, young people are work of nature; old people are work of art.

Toby Keith, an American singer, was playing golf with actor Clint Eastwood, who told him, ‘I will turn 88 on Monday.’ Keith asked him what he was going to do. Eastwood replied, ‘I am going to start a movie, with the filming schedule to begin the following week.’ Again he asked, ‘What keeps you going?’ Eastwood replied, ‘I get up every day and don’t let the old man in.’ Keith went home that day and wrote a famous song, ‘Don’t let the old man in’.

What is your choice? I don’t want to hang up my boots. I will prefer to depart with boots on.