Travel, food & life....as it happens

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Old times' sake...

These are the times of 'here & now'. To remember people or honour them for old times' sake is a proposition long lost on a lot.

May it be retired soldiers, actors, writers, businessmen, politicians; doesn't matter what walk of life they belonged to, if they have served the country or mankind in someway or the other, they deserve to be treated well in the sunset of their lives. If nothing else, they merit politeness and recognition, they have earned it.

To question capabilities, ridicule ideologies of a veteran bureaucrat or avoid suggestions from an erstwhile General are met with applaud. Signs of time they say. One has to move ahead. Can't be stuck in old times or rest on past laurels. The in thing is speed of turnover and who reached the finishing line first. One can't be bothered with the slow and time consuming ways of the past. This is a thought one can't argue much about. It indeed is the need of the hour.

But to completely nullify and invalidate the contribution someone must have made just because they are at a vulnerable or feeble stage in life is so uncalled for!

SRK and Sachin are big names today. Just like Dev Anaand ji was once upon a time. Maybe Dev ji had an even more crowd pulling persona then. But just because they are no longer in the limelight or doing anything that can spin oodles of money, is it ok to laugh at them? 'Oh I don't like Lata's voice now, she has lost the touch', it is fashionable to say this. A lot of people do that. As if one is talking about a reality show winner who has forgotten how to sing. But she sang for past 65 years and must have been the biggest grosser of all times, is that a fact to be forgotten so soon? Can anybody sing like her at 81? Why not give credit where and when it is due?

I find this to be a trend that is setting in deep and firm. Not just with regards to celebrities but in and around our very families. 'Oh you don't know how this works so please don't meddle in this' seems to be an advice a lot of elderly people are getting from their offspring. True they are old, not savvy enough and may hamper your speed of work at times. But all those years they spent being patient with you, are they not worth slowing down for them now?

Friendships, relationships, a kind word, a good endeavour, a noble enterprise....they all warrant an encouraging thought back. Someone took a decision ten years back to spend the rest of their life with you. Someone stuck with you when the tide was against. Someone gave you a loan when no one else would. Just because all that is in the past doesn't mean you forget the thought and feelings behind those acts.

Intolerance towards the aged and all things old is something that bothers me. Why doesn't anyone realise that in a few years we will be crossing those roads too. How would we like it if someone whizzed past us without a care and no one put forth a helping hand if we fell down???

4 comments:

  1. We are a part of a rat race...everyone wants to make it...and no-ones to be left behind. I, myself, also have this fear of getting left behind from my own daughter....and I try to take my old mother with me in her pace through this journey of life....find it difficult many times....one needs to understand that one is going to find oneself in their shoe one day!

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  2. hmmm...you are right, I know it is difficult and tolerance is not an easy virtue to come by, but it is required you know. The sooner we realise it, better for us.

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  3. Vandana, While reading this article of yours I was thinking of Shantibhavan, a home for aged in our area. Whenever I look in its varanda, I can see few eyes staring me or for that reason people around me. Now I understood what they meant

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  4. Hmm Shriraj. I can totally understand when people feel tied down as old people slow them down. Even I get frustrated when I have to explain to my father how he can see the photographs on FB or something else. But I guess one can slow down and must, for the sake of old times....for the sake of what those vacant eyes must have given to the world in the prime of their lives.

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