The Malady of Old Age

People say old age is the recoiling of childhood. It is the phase when we want as much attention as a little toddler. We age outside but inside we become those little babies who never grow up. It’s when we want to look good but the mirror doesn’t change the reflection that keeps getting worse. The wrinkles are not welcomed happily and the loss of physical strength doesn’t tame down those desire to pose for a photograph or to go to a new place every week.

I went to an old age home today and trust me I couldn’t witness something as sad. That home housed some 56 old aged people of 65 years and more. They had a big area to sit around and have fun (you might think so). Every room had the basic amenities for a person to survive but not live.

I met an old lady who had gone senile. She uttered words which perplexed me. But she was so old and so fragile that I had tears seeing her in that condition. She wasn’t living there because her children didn’t have money to keep her but only because they didn’t have the heart to keep the person who ‘made’ them. Kept them in her womb for 9 months only to be left alone at a time when she needed them the most. She was all alone, muttering to herself and roaming around with fat glasses to show her the way.

She wasn’t the only one with a sad story. An old man just didn’t show me his face out of fear or some reasons unknown to me. He was so old but all alone too. The rest of them were locked up in their rooms. Imagine the time 20 years from now. They were young too, had the energy and the reason to live. But now lost of purpose and the reason to live and enjoy. Did they ever imagine in their wildest of dreams that they were going to end up this way, in an old age home with strangers?  All this made me question ‘my generation’ and the values that they have. Can’t you keep your own parents who made you and gave you everything that could make you happy. Are you so selfish?

But on the brighter side, the home had a fixed program for morning and evening prayers. They are given proper food and looked after properly.

But is that ALL they need right now?