With medical breakthroughs and geriatric care, longevity is increasing. The senior citizens segment of the Indian population is growing exponentially and the predictions are that by 2050, every fifth Indian will be a senior citizen.
I often wonder where exactly lies the line that demarcates the beginning of one’s life as a senior. Quite often, an individual finds himself/herself in the liminal space... straddling youth and old age. Retirement, community-specific ritualistic functions, arrival of grandchildren and certain telltale signs of physical wear and tear, all these indicate the beginning of life’s waning period. Added to these, the subtle, unobtrusive signs of alienation convey, in no uncertain terms, that one is on the threshold of old age. A natural transition process or a conditioned societal response, the reality affects people in different ways.
As generations overlap, there is bound to be conflicts and friction, in all aspects of life. George Orwell nailed it in his words: “Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it and wiser than the one that comes after it.”
