GREYING IN EASTMAN COLOR
Aninda Mukherjee
Unfortunately I have no memories of the most memorable day of my life. It was just another non-descript August morning of 1967 in a small South Calcutta Nursing Home when the uneventful ‘delivery’ took place…..much like a fragile package arriving by a dependable courier. No delays, no damages….parcel as expected. I am told that my maternal grandfather was the first visitor to the crib. He took me in his arms rather confidently (he had six children and nine grand children by then) and blessed me with those oft repeated words, “Eksho bochor bancho”….”may you live to be a hundred.” Data analysts of the time, if present, would have frowned at the old man’s optimism since the average life expectancy in India in ’67 was 45. Hundred would be outside any conceivable bell curve. Even today it is 70.19! Now in my mid-fifties, I find it fascinating to look back and see how the paradigm of age has shifted over time. A little like “Getting Older’, the Billie Eilish song from yesterday….
The cycle of life is enunciated in our ancient texts, Dharmashastra and Dharmasutra. It talks of four phases with indistinct overlaps, Brahmacharya (studentship), Grihasta (domestic), Vanaprastha (forest dweller) and Sanyas (ascetic). Over the years, however, this has more or less described states of mind rather than precise practice. So a child, while pursuing scholarship, gathers skill. The skillful youth takes on a vocation and starts a family. He devotes his middle years to hunting, gathering and nurturing. When the next generation nears the end of their brahmacharya and is on the cusp of branching out, the man disengages to a less material, more spiritual existence. Slowly, he attains a certain detachment from his familial duties and seamlessly steps left to a world of introspection and communion. His life is defined both by Karma and Dharma, the body of work and the principles by which he has lived. The phases are not equal quadrants, but merely an indicative guidance.
In fact, Sudhir Kakar, in his essay ‘The Search for Middle Age in India’, makes an insightful observation. His treatise attempts to define three stages of life — childhood, youth and old age….old age being triggered by the marriage of the eldest son or daughter, symbolising readiness of the next generation’s own reproductive stage. This idea is both simple and contemporary. But it is interesting to note that though the three stages have remained significantly relevant over the years, the numerical ages of their progression have been pushed back. Maybe fifty is the new thirty after all. But is twenty five the new teen?
Late last year, the COVID situation in Bombay eased a bit, affording me the luxury of having a drink with a journalist friend at Cafe Mondegar in Colaba. He was researching a piece on the legacy of Raj Kapoor in Indian Cinema and we got talking. Did I know, he asked, how old RK was when he commissioned his own studio? Silence. In 1948, at the age of 24, Raj established RK Films. The same year he single handedly made ‘Aag’, directing the block-buster which also starred himself and Nargis in lead roles. Ironically, around the time we were discussing this, a young man named Aryan Khan had been arrested for alleged consumption of banned substance during a rave party onboard a cruise ship. He was the son of Shahrukh Khan, a megastar in Bollywood, very much the Sikandar of his times. Aryan was 24. His distraught dad had to cut short his vacation in Europe and fly back to preside over a strong legal defence for his helpless child languishing in Arthur Road Jail. In context, the striking similarities and stark differences between the two young men were glaring! Raj Kapoor at 24 had liberated himself from the shadows of Prithviraj Kapoor, skilled himself in his craft and taken on responsibilities that life offered. He had graduated Brahmacharya cum laude and entered the phase of independent existence. Aryan in 2021 was clearly still in Shaishab (childhood), not past his scholarship, nowhere close to shouldering the responsibilities of Grihastha. While specific individuals are merely illustrative and unimportant, the trend is noteworthy. The phases of life seem to be shifting with each period of progression showing a pronounced lag. In fact today it is common for parents to accompany their kids when they move to residential colleges in India and abroad, presumably to help them settle down in the new environs and make them comfortable. It was unthinkable a few decades back for one or both parents to travel with a young adult embarking on his or her vocational journey to study engineering or medicine or law! It may be argued that affordability has increased. But then, I doubt whether Ratan Tata or Anand Mahindra were escorted to Cornell or Harvard by members of their family! It may, then, not be incorrect to infer that the hand holding period has extended over the years. The obvious cascade has been late marriages, delayed parenthood and consequently enhanced stress of deferred responsibilities during advanced biological years. While fifty had become the new thirty in the head, the arteries sometimes refused to comply and were often blocked in rebellious disobedience. Although untimely passing of individuals in their 50s was not uncommon in the past, it remains a fact that historically, at that unfortunate point in time, the next generation would be well on their way to independent living. Today, a middle aged loss of life often leaves in its wake struggling kids….helpless, dependent, unprepared, lost.
The common aspiration of most human minds is articulated in two beautiful lines from the Puranas:-
Pashyem Sharadah Shatam / Jivet Sharadah Shatam.
Let me see a hundred autumns/ Let me live a hundred autumns.
It would be safe to assume that with the advancements in medicine and diagnostic tools, each man today would at least live to the average life expectancy of his region of residence, within statistically accepted deviations. Exceptions would be deaths due to accidents, war or unforeseen natural disasters. But this is far from the truth. Lifestyle diseases have increased, man made catastrophes are common. Contamination, adulteration and toxicity are omnipresent predators that destroy our existence. Mental health is fragile. It is in fact heartbreaking that the yearly number of suicides in India itself has jumped four fold from 40 thousand (1967) to 154 thousand (2020) just during my lifetime.
Humankind, which used to thrive around the pillars of Samyama (self control), Niyam (observance), Pratyahar (restraint), Dharana (Steady mind) and Dhyana (meditation), is now swayed by the fickleness of desire and greed.
It’s a funny vector analysis, really. Science accelerates. The velocity of lifestyle and stress induced diseases revs up rapidly. While the absolute value of progress is significant, the relative advancement of good health and longevity vis a vis morbidity remains negligible. It would be an interesting experiment to model an average early twentieth century life in a simulated environment of twenty first century medical apparatus, other factors remaining constant. It is safe to presume that the result of such a hypothetical exercise, inevitably, would be that more fifties would get converted to centuries. Jivet Sharadah Shatam. But in reality, we are not batting like Sir Don at all!
But time tells a story. In fact time is a story. Individuals form characters. Some take center stage, others are permitted only a fleeting presence. But life is more than just time spent in the sun. It is the kaleidoscope of colors that it paints itself with. And today, more than ever, the stages of life overlap amidst the smudging of its shades. Sometimes an earlier stage resurrects itself years after passing on its baton to the next. Occasionally a later stage makes a surprisingly early entry. A retiree goes back to school. A school drop out makes billions with an ingenious enterprise! Couples marry early and remain childless, only to adopt years later. A grandmother rejects her Sanyas and embraces parenting her orphaned grand child. Malala wins a Nobel at 17! Buffett sips a Coke, has a burger and gives away 99% of his $114 Bn to help the world. He is 91! An old man in Kyiv, with the beginnings of Parkinsons, picks up a gun! A young lady in Gujarat marries herself….sologamy! It is in this dynamic reality that our phases of life resonate…often in unison, occasionally in discord. It is time we revisited the Puranik phases of existence. Thus will emerge a fresh index of chapters in the new edition of life’s book.
And then there’s me. As I get older, Carmen Twillie and Lebo whisper from a distance….
From the day we arrive on the planet/ And blinking, step into the sun….
Its the circle of life/ And it moves us all.
