OLD
AGE
“ Age” is defined as the number of years that a person has
lived . The English dramatist and poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616 ) has
divided life into seven ages in his poem The
Seven Ages of Man. It is however better to divide the ages of life into four
stages : childhood, youth, adulthood and old age.
Old
age is correctly defined as the range of ages for people surpassing life
expectancy. It is not a definite biological stage.
The chronological age denoted as “old age” varies culturally
and historically. In the past when there were several fatal diseases like
tuberculosis , cholera and malaria and no specific medicines to treat them, the
life span of a person was less than even
50 years which is now about 75 years.
Even in this highly developed world
, old age is not a comfortable stage of life. Very few aged people are really healthy. They are both physically and mentally
weak and unhappy.
The English author and philosopher Francis Bacon ( 1561-1626)
says: Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little,
repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content
themselves with a mediocrity of success. This view of old age may not be fully correct
today when old people are being
abandoned by their children and are living either alone or in old age homes; and to grow old gracefully and happily has
become a rare and difficult attainment.
It is not wrong to say that there is
not a more repulsive spectacle than an old man who will not forsake the world,
which has already forsaken him.
Finally, when now most of one’s relatives,
friends, colleagues, companions, etc., have become self-centred and unfaithful,
old age is no longer a blessing.
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G.R.Kanwal
8th August 2024
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