Wise, not other wise Dr C.V ANANDA BOSE

 

19. Wise, not other wise

In the deathless world described by the Poet, even a grandpa of 500 years looks like a baby. But in the present world all those who crossed sixty are in the schedule of the aged. Though these people are fondly called senior citizens, the plight of many in that category is really pitiable. In family and society many of them are treated as valuable and worthwhile as domestic waste. ‘All old people die. Why is that granny alone does not die?’ When the grandma fondly recalls the innocent question of her three year old grandson, is not her tenderness tinged with a little heartache?

That heartache, that sadness, is the main problem of the aged now. Many of the aged make protective nests out of that ache and confine themselves in it. There is a usual sight in our native land nowadays. A big house. There is an aged man or woman. There will be people for domestic help. As also television, fridge and other gadgets. And people may ask. What do they lack? There is a large house and all amenities one could think of. There is money for everything. And a car to take the old couple around. But the old man and the old woman in the house feel like being in house arrest. Their children are in America, or Germany or the Gulf. There is a phone call every two days. Medicines are promptly dispatched. Could all these things remove the grandma’s ache? She doesn’t get the nearness of her children, the lisping of her grandchildren. There is no hope that she would get it either. Occasionally her children may entreat her to g to America to spend some time with them. But it is difficult to spend even two days there.

We can say it is not a problem isolated to India and we can skirt the issue, describing it as a global phenomenon. True, it is a global phenomenon, a problem that causes concern all over the world. The problem of the aged. It is not only financial issues that plague the old people. Financial problems are important. But in developing nations and poor countries alike health issues of the aged nag them and the society more than anything else. Their safety also is a matter of concern.

When law and order break down and crimes escalate, the first target of house breakers and killers will be aged people living alone. How many incidents of this nature are reported almost everyday.

It appears as if the government has total disregard for the umpteen problems faced by the aged people in their day to day life. Take for instance their plight on the pension day. At the Treasury it is a common sight on pension day to see frail old pensioners standing in queue for hours together, overtaken indifferently by agile youngsters. If they show up their hand for the bus to stop, the driver, if possible, would not stop the vehicle, or would only slow down, applying the brake a little. They forget, in their callousness, that the aged do not have the physical agility to hop into a moving vehicle. . Some of the bus crew are amused by the predicament of these hapless people. The steps to get into the bus are truly speaking designed only for the strong and the agile, not for the weak and the aged. Even in hospitals, the old people get exhausted by climbing stairs. Even after climbing all the steps, there is no guarantee that the doctor will be available. How many cinema theatres is there that provide ramps for the sake of the aged or people with physical disability? At the railway station, the old people are bound to curse their life because of the difficulty of standing in serpentine queues. Only in rarest or rare cases do we find special queues for the aged. All this show the callous neglect of the aged by the society.

The issue hotted up when the number of the aged considerably increased all over. Even the United Nations took cognisance of the seriousness of the problem. Under its auspices global meets were held, the problem was defined and its extent demarcated and a working document for the welfare of the aged was approved. National governments were then persuaded to accept this as part of their national policy. In the wake of such efforts, some beneficial changes have taken place. It helped to generate a feeling that the aged people were not waste material and that they do have a creative and dynamic role to play in the society shoulder to shoulder with the younger generation. This also helped remove many misconceptions of the past. There was general realization that the aged deserved attention, care, partnership and independence. The approach to the aged should be marked by attention in place of neglect of the past, it was generally felt in the society.

If anyone thought that grandpas above eighty were as alive and kicking as the stone dead, he had only to look at people like Bertrand Russell, Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill. Bertrand Russel gave leadership to the movement for world peace when he was ninety-four. Bernard Shaw wrote his play ‘Far Fetched Fables’ when he was ninety-three. Michelangelo never considered eighty-eight as old age. It was when he was 88 that he designed the Santa Maria Church. After successfully leading a world war, Winston Churchill did not remain idle. It was when he was 82 that he wrote his celebrated four-volume book, A History of the English Speaking People. Picasso was active as a painter even when he was ninety. Adaneur who became German chancellor at the age of 88, showed that he was as argotic a ruler as any one much below his age.

‘Old is Gold’ is an expression that is heard often. How true it is. In a city suburb in Austria there was an old man who used to remove fallen leaves from a water source. His action helped to maintain the cleanliness and purity of that water source. He used to receive a small remuneration from the city corporation. Sometime later the city fathers decided to discontinue this payment to the old man as they considered it a wasteful expenditure. Some months elapsed and the corporation noticed that there was a steep fall in the revenue from tourism. They enquired and what turned up in the enquiry was an eye opener for them. Tourists failed to turn up because the water body was now full of decayed leaves, emitting foul smell. It was no more the clean and pure lake that used to beckon them to its bank to stroll, to while away the time and to take pictures of the pristine water body.

Realizing their mistake the corporation re-employed the old man, giving due respect to the valuable work done by him. Like him, it is indeed the grandpa and grandma in our housefolds who see that the clean water bodies of the family are not contaminated. It is also their job to ensure a smooth, uninterrupted flow for the course of life of the young generation. It will be good if the society in general realizes this.

Old men are wise men, not otherwise.