Lies, Damned Lies and age

Three different types of lies. Lies, damned lies and 'age’… In 1997, I had a business partner who would never admit his true age (he was fifty then), unless it was a legal matter. He wanted to look young, though he couldn't think young or act young. I used to jokingly say ‘Come on, speak the truth about your age, even if your voice shakes’.

It is quite interesting to note that in our life, we never want to own and be our age.  At 10 we wanted to be seen as teen-agers, at 16 wanted to draw a pencil moustache to look 19, at 21 wanted the world to acknowledge us as a mature man of 28, at 30 wanted everyone to see us as a responsible adult of 35, at 45 craved for recognition as a 35, at 50 refused to gracefully accept ‘growing old’ and behaved like a 40 and suddenly at 55 or so started acting strangely like either a 40 year old or a 70 year old.

The weird behavior of either acting much younger or older at age 55 requires elaboration. The other day my brother was recalling that in 1978, our periappa (mother’s b-in-law), at 55 used to have the dhoti lifted up and tied around the bare chest, acted as though he already had a foot in the grave. The outlook towards life used to be that ‘all commitments of mine are over in life and have to keep chanting Rama, Krishna for salvation’. Even today some retired folks behave this way. But many in today’s generation of 50s, behave like youth and sport Jeans, T-shirt, Shorts etc. sometimes even acting like teens. Incidentally, I have remained 40 for the last 15 years :-). The partner of mine claimed himself to be 40 when his younger brother was known to be 50.

Today in the Social Networks, many men and women do not reveal their age... and if they happen to be above 40 they even display the mug shot taken during their college days. Talking about the age-belying photos, I have to mention that even in the obituary columns in newspapers these days, I find the photos of many YOUNGSTERS who were born in 1920s and died in 2013 :-)