‘Age - Myth or Measure?'

It is said that the age is both a story we tell and a number we track.  If we measure the age, it is undeniable, that is, it counts time since birth.  Age has long been used as a yardstick for ability, maturity and potential. From childhood milestones to retirement thresholds, society often treats age as a defining measure of who we are and what we can achieve. But is age truly a meaningful indicator or is it merely a convenient myth?  As a myth, age becomes something else entirely.  We start attaching expectations to it, such as, too young to know, too old to change, the right age to succeed.  

On one hand, age does measure certain biological realities. Physical strength, cognitive development and health risks often correlate with the passage of time. These patterns help shape policies around education, employment and healthcare. In this sense, age provides a useful framework for understanding human growth and decline.  Yet, age becomes a myth when it is used to limit individuality. Two people of the same age can differ vastly in experience, energy, skills, and outlook.  Some reach career peaks early whereas others discover their purpose later in life.  Creativity, resilience and wisdom do not follow a strict timeline. 

After the age of 40, it hardly matters how much a person is educated or an illiterate.  Many a times, when you are standing in tea stall, it is heart-rending to observe that a tea stall person is earning more and that too tax-free.  Similarly, after the age of 50, a person may have been very handsome but after this age, wrinkles appear on the face and the person is no longer considered smart.  Thus, there is apparently hardly any value to smartness after the age of 50.  After the age of 60, you might have been working in top most position in any organization or even with your signature the city might have been administered, but now there are chances that even the security guard will not salute.  So, after the age of 60, the value of post held vanishes.  After the age of 70, the size of house hardly matters.  There is no value to the size of house, when the knee starts paining and in fact bigger the house, more is the trouble moving from one room to another or from one floor to another floor in the house.  So, seems better, comfortable and adaptable in small flat at that age.   After the age of 80, even if a person beholds huge wealth, there is hardly any value to that money as you have to eat only a few hundred money worth of tablet.  There is hardly any scope left to spend money on oneself for enjoyment at that age.  Full life spent running after earning money with so many tactics and practices all seem to go waste at that age.    

The thinking or theme that our time will come and we will enjoy the life later is all a myth.  Actually, what is happening is we are all heading towards old age and in old age we are only going to struggle with disease(s) and we are going to see that our relatives, children and even household helps are going to enjoy with our money that we have accumulated .  So, please wherever you are and whatever you have, put a stop and start learning to just enjoy with the money that the Almighty has bestowed and utilize the same properly. 

Yours truly, 

Subbiah Sridhar