Turning sixty

I turned sixty yesterday. If I had still been serving at that school, they would have officially thrown me out yesterday itself. All I can say is, 'Thank God I quit early.' And so, from today onwards, I am officially a Senior Citizen, and a voluntarily-self employed person hereafter.

There was a wonderful birthday celebration. The last time it had happened was exactly half a century ago (my mother, who arranged that last one, is still around), and this time round I had shyly expressed a mild desire for some sort of do on this day in my Whatsapp group of favourite old boys and girls. Several of them took it very seriously, and arranged a fun event that I shall remember with relish and gratitude till my dying day. There was even a round of cake cutting, and gifts (the most precious of which, it goes without saying, was that so many of them, Pupu included, had made time out of their busy schedules to come over, even from Kolkata, just to be here with me). There was an intercontinental video chat in which several others, who could not physically attend, enthusiastically joined in. There was happy cheering, eating and drinking, and almost all of them stayed the night, so we had the best kind of adda till the wee hours. Few people who are not rich and powerful celebrities (whose special occasions are attended essentially by chamchas looking for undeserved favours!) get such special treatment to warm the cockles of the heart. I am grateful to all of them, but above all to Providence. 'Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good'....

I am serene and happy today. Feeling much, much more upbeat than I was ten years ago, when I turned fifty. (and you can go even further back into the past if you read Forty five and counting). Maybe for the time left to me, I can look forward to being less and less anxious about the future, having more and more time for loved ones, and watching their progress through life with ever more benign interest and helpful concern. Nothing would give me more pleasure anyway. But most of my life's work is done, and it was a fairly tough and challenging life, and I have dealt with it in a way that does not make me feel guilty or ashamed or inadequate. Now I am going to enjoy all the perquisites of old age, from getting a discount on my income tax bill to having to care less and less about household chores.

But, and I am reminding the Man Upstairs daily these days, I don't want to hang around for much longer than three score years and ten, and the three score is done already. 

One little girl, a current pupil, has wished me Happy Birthday along with the remark 'Not everyone can make sixty look like you do.' I am both grateful and very, very proud.