A Chance To Grow Old

Not everyone gets a chance to grow old. If one does end up getting dressed by old age, it can be called a fortune. Old age engulfs a person, it covers you up. Like a drop cloth that protects furniture. As the white sheet is draped over, you feel loved and cared for. You feel protected and cosy inside your sheet. Your hard days are over, and you can live an easy retired life. You are safe from the dust, debris and dirt. All external influences slowly fade, and the white sheet becomes a part of you. It becomes your silhouette. The drop cloth is now your identity.

As time progresses, the white glaze starts to take over you. The monotone white! You now feel isolated. Spending your days in the corner of a room, alone. The drop cloth prevents any communication to the outside world. Your family forgets your vibrance. The only thing that catches their eye is the white. Your colour and dynamism have given up, it hides beneath the boring sheet. Your friends, who share the same age, are also draped in their own white sheets.

The drop cloth turns into a prison. The outside world does not affect you anymore. It is an echo chamber, and the only sound you hear is your scream. Others can’t listen to you, and you won’t hear them. No one is interested in mundane and monotone white cloth. No one touches you or talks to you. You also fail to speak, because the drop cloth stifles your words. People perceive you as an inarticulate object.

You want to escape from the confinement. You want to venture into the world and face the dust and dirt. You can’t live like a stale piece of furniture anymore. You don’t want the drop cloth anymore. But you can’t move. Your bones have failed you. The drop cloth sits comfortably. People around don’t understand and never try to take it off. The drop cloth remains. The persistent and parochial cloth!

And one day, you die. You are buried with full honours, wrapped in a white cloth.

Every time I see an old person, I am reminded of the white cloth. Many people voluntarily dress in the white cloth. We are taught to work hard in our youth and don the drop cloth after 60. The youth works day and night to save money, get a good house and buy the drop cloth. We are promised safety and ease. But we only loath the aftermath.

However, it is not hard to find aged people who maintain their vibrance. Yes, the bones have failed them. Their eyes refuse to see clearly. Their memory seems to dissolve into the unknown. Yet, they live life to the fullest, as much as their age lets them. They reject the drop cloth and stay abreast with the world.

Ageing is a reality that everyone has to face. Grandparents, parents and even children will grow frail. Sometimes, all an aged person needs is an ear that listens and a mind that understands. A special person willing to make sense of the mumbling and grumbling of the aged tongue. Someone who empathises and embraces. We expect our children to be that special someone for us, but are we prepared to understand our own parents? Are you the special someone for anyone?

The next time you take umbrage at an older person’s remarks, remember that they are fighting their own drop cloth.

(The author is a student of Humanities at DPS Srinagar)