We all love evenings and Sunsets. But what if one day when we are not sure whether the sun will come back or not the next day, Will you still love the evenings and sunsets?

Here I am talking about the evenings in one’s life. Old age.

In the depth of thoughts

The illusion that we created, called as time will always tick away and we have to move forward. Getting old is inevitable. Everyone and everything will get old and reach its expiration date, even the Stars, galaxies and what not. Even after knowing these facts with certainty, that are backed by the scientific and mathematical evidences, we are doing all sorts of rubbish things.

This introduction was given not to depress anyone, but to tell you about June 15th. “The United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 66/127 designated June 15 as World Elder Abuse awareness day. It represents the one day in the year when the whole world voices its opposition to the abuse and suffering inflicted to some of our older generations.”

” The distressing crime of elder abuse often occurs in quite, private settings, making a vocal, public response that much more important. Let us strengthen our resolve to end this problem as part of our broader efforts to create a life of dignity for all” – UN Secretary – General Ban Ki-moon

When I came to know about this day, I wanted to find out the conditions of the elders who are subjected to any kind of abuses. So I decided to visit a few Old age homes. When I searched for the same in the internet to find out the address, the number of old age homes in the near vicinity surprised me. In one way it is a good thing that there are many elder care centres to take care of the elders, but on the other hand it means, more and more people are sending the elders to such places.

Again there are two categories in such elder care centres. The ones offering luxurious facilities for the rich while the next, offering kindness to the abandoned. One is business while the other is kindness. I couldn’t quite come to a conclusion about the moral sides of these institutions but I am glad that these are there to help the elders who are in need of care.

These thoughts reminded me of the conversation I had with a Danish traveller . She wanted to know how the elders are treated in India and what happens to the parents of the Indians who are working abroad. She said in future when our middle class grows, there will be more problems related to old age. She had already seen various parts of Mumbai and wanted more about other parts of India as well.

Then I had a real life story to tell her, of an elderly person who struggles to live his life with dignity.

The Weighing man

This person was working in a cooperative society for years and earned nothing big. When it was time, he retired from his work and received a meagre amount as his pension and other benefits. As he was living alone, he had to find a way to live his life further. So he bought a machine investing everything including the last penny he had. It was a machine that tells the height and weight of people. Sort of crude form of BMI finding machine. The charges of checking weight and height using that machine was just 2 rupees. Approximately 60 people has to pay him 2 rupees just to make it a 1 USD. How many people during their busy life would want to know their height and weight on an average day?! Now you get the picture, how he earns a living.

He stands there from morning till night, expecting that some passer-by would want to know their BMI. And just stays there under that shade.

At last someone came to check the BMI and gave him a bigger currency. He hadn’t earned that much to give the balance back. And then the surprising thing happened. He said, as he didn’t have the change, they could pay later and he returned the big currency back. When he was asked to keep the money, he was not willing to keep an unnecessary extra amount which he didn’t deserve for his services. I would like to call it business ethics, even though he doesn’t have much business.

When we have the richest peoples of the world, building the biggest homes for themselves with the flashiest comforts which they would probably never use in their entire life, right next to the largest slums of the world and trying to maximize the profits in every possible ways; these kinds of people should be admired immensely. Their life is a struggle, but they fight with dignity. His life is a struggle and he fights everyday with dignity, even at this age.

Isn’t he inspiring? Even the ‘young and wild’ complains about the hardships of life. Take a moment to think about people like him before you complain.

Even this one who sells lemons is an example.

When life gives you lemons

Lets be good to everyone