Kalyanasundaram Ramamurthy
Work as long as possible. This was the advice given by my friend who had taken premature retirement and had a lot of health issues. He told me that as long as he was working, his mind was active and he was healthy. I took his advice seriously and continued working even after crossing sixty. One day, the inevitable happened. The management felt that it was not healthy for the organisation to have people, who are on the wrong side of sixties in their rolls. Unfortunately they were not aware that studies prove that man is at his productive best between sixty and seventy years of age. Anyway the D day arrived, when a suitable replacement was found.
After working sixty hours a week for many years, spending time after retirement was a big problem. I wanted to help my wife in the kitchen and re-invent my long lost culinary art. However after botching up some dishes, I was relegated to doing some unskilled jobs like boiling milk, cutting vegetables, peeling onion etc. Then I tried my hand in teaching. Thirty years back, I was barred from teaching after I had confused my daughter in maths. Any way, I thought I will try once more with a new student. When I started teaching my granddaughter, I found out that I was woefully out of tune with the present curriculum and teaching methods. The more I tried teaching her, the more I was exhibiting my ignorance. She was also mischievously laughing at my accent. Then I decided not to spoil her basics and quietly withdrew from teaching, much to her relief. Having failed in my both initiatives, I felt it was a good idea to pursue my passion, Table tennis. Surprisingly I found that I had not lost touch with the game and was playing the same bad shots, I used to play earlier. Though playing makes me feel young at heart, the other body parts have become old and are not keeping pace. Anyway keeping fit is the main intention of playing though occasional wins keep my spirits high. Walking with friends in the evening is another pastime, I have pursued in these years.
All said and done, the six years of my retirement life has been one of the best periods of my life. There has been no tension of getting up early and hurrying to office, no bosses to report to, no targets to achieve and I feel as though I am travelling in a timeless world. It has given a good time to dwell on my past achievements, lost opportunities, goals achieved, missed etc. I have all the time for my family, old age comes with its own perks like preferential treatment in public places and the respect grey hair gets. I enjoy these perks but the bottom line I remember is “ Don’t take yourself seriously as no one else does”. This is so true at my age.