Old age-a paradox of long life (From the perspective of an old woman)

“Happy birthday to you; many, many, happy returns to you. May you live long!” As I read on the face book wall of my friends, it takes me to the time I have seen old age is more of a curse of the wishes than the wishes of blessings. Long life is not a synonym of a happy life; rather long life is a repercussion of good wishes of the well wishers that fate takes the otherwise. Everyone wants to live long but I know a very few will have thought of the paradox of long life.

Smooth skin on the beautiful face that once shone becomes folded in many wrinkles. Your cascade of hair that you once maintained and added to your beauty gradually falls. Your head gradually marches with the speed of time into being barren. Your gums that once grasped your beautiful teeth that polished your smile will fall off. Your smile will become less attractive and what you used to be will be long gone. The beautiful and dynamic torso will succumb to the curse of nature-your back will curve like a bow. Day by day, your height seems growing smaller and your age, bigger. Infact, life is like anti-parallel line-as age ascend, your height descends.

Your brain cell will gradually start dying and once again you go into childhood. Your thinking capacity will deteriorate and you can barely remember things. Your act will become an intermediate between that of a child and a matured person. The same you, who once grabbed the hands of a child and walked as if nothing is burdensome, will become tired with a little walk. A small step you make forward will tire you to death. Panting and puffing, you will curse yourself.  

As you sit on your bed and calculate your age by bending your fingers, you will feel that you have reached to the peak of life. The dried pillow on which you lay your head for the comfort will become drenched with the silent tears-the tears that fall off at the thought of how you used to be once upon a time. Perhaps, then you will have been one of the people who could catch a flying bird or one who could run a hundred miles with ease. Perhaps you will have been one of the most beautiful persons of your time. Life, like an ebb and flow of a sea, keeps running forth, never to be back again.  At the mere thought of your death, as it is sure at an old age, will make your night sleepless.

At times you will feel like talking with others and share your emotions but you become too alien for them to understand what you wanted to say. You will talk with others at some occasions but no one will pay any heed, rather you will be laughed at. You will want to stay with others when you fee low but they will not bother to have you by their side. Everybody will neglect what you speak.

My grandma back in the village, whose sons and daughters are scattered all around the world, must be going through a series of painful moments. I can assume it but all I can do is sympathize with her. I often remember her feeling lost and at times smoking. I know the kind of burden and the paradoxical situation one will go through. I wish a good health of my grandma and rest old people around the world.