JOIN USAge just a number?
I strongly believed that age is just a number and propagated it among my peers, much to their amusement. This went on until a new maid joined our household. At the outset, she addressed me as “ajji.”
I was irked and sternly told her to either call me aunty or, at worst, amma. She meekly nodded her head with an aaytu ajji (OK grandma). This routine of correcting her repeated almost
every day.
To boost my confidence, I resorted to retail therapy. I decided to go shopping with a trendy bag on a busy road. Every time I had to negotiate a pothole, a helping hand would assist me with a “careful, grandma.” To my chargin, the road had potholes aplenty.
I stopped at a traffic signal for the pedestrian green signal. A traffic cop came running, held my hands firmly, and hauled me to the other footpath with a warning not to venture out without an escort! I was unaware of the videography of the whole incident by his friend until it was uploaded on Facebook the next day, praising the policeman, who was a good samaritan.
Recently, I attended a wedding with all the finery at my disposal, only to be greeted by a relative who bent down to touch my feet, seeking blessings. Taking the cue, all the younger relatives came in a line to bend down for blessings. In that melee, someone thrust a cup of Akshata into my hands to formalise the ritual.
My protest about not being a holy person but an ordinary mortal was met with a firm rebuttal. “You are an elderly person, and your blessings are like God’s blessings.”
I was in the doctor’s clinic, anxiously looking at his face for the verdict on my health condition. After scrutinising all the medical reports for what seemed like an eternity, he uttered what sounded like a Greek or Latin word that seemed to have all the letters of the alphabet.
“What is it? What has caused it? “
“As a result of aging,” he explained.
“Any treatment possible?”
“None, just learn to live with it,” he laughed, but I didn’t.
Do you still believe that age is just a number? Well, I don’t anymore.