Age and date of birth keep chasing you from birth to death, without these details neither can you live nor die peacefully!
It starts with the birth certificate , admission in school, job, senior citizen concession, bus pass, job application, marriage , PAN card, voting, watching movies, driving license ,death etc...
In our times there was no birth certificate , elders words were bible getting admission in school was never a headache. No one asked for the certificates, the deliveries were mostly at home, at the time of admitting parents were hardly there and it was either some relatives or friends who played the role of parents in the name of guardian.
People in villages never know when their kids were born and if you ask them they would either say the child was born when there was a heavy flood, drought, cyclone etc,,,, or would say the year next to Ambi's birth,Cheenu's birth.....
I was told for my brother my athai ( my father's sister ) gave the name as Nandagopal at the time of admission. We were given admission on the condition that we could touch our nose by taking the arm behind our head and if we could do so, we were enrolled for Class one.
In a hurry to send the kids to school so that the house gets ready for the next sibling trying to push out, they cooked the year of birth by a year ahead or later. My husband lost a year at the time of retirement and my father gained by a year!
But the scenario has changed three decades back, birth certificates were issued at the municipality and hospitals recorded the birth and death, it has become mandatory for getting the originals and multiple copies of them. No one could blame the height for the real age, but in buses and other places they have the height chart to know the truth of the correct age.The current generation and the next just grow so fast in height and girth that it becomes difficult to guess the age!
See what our nation is undergoing with the Army Gen goofing up his age and it's still a question is it 1950 or 1951?It's a shame on him ,he has used the forged age to get entry and when it comes to exit he wants to keep it? Where is the justice and logic?
There is a saying that one should not ask the age of a lady and the salary of a man.Now both are out and no one minds it.
Another aspect in a marital life is the wife is always young for the husband , he keeps getting everything in his place from basic water to mobile phone and bechari wife has to run errands for him till her death. Husbands have the retirement from job, but even if the wife retires from job, she has to wield the ladle in the kitchen instead of the pen ! For her there is no retirement, the husband keep saying they are getting old but it is never true for their partners. She keeps doing the same chores from day one day end.
But they do not leave any stone unturned for looking young, and they not ready to accept aging , they start dyeing the hair, dress up like young ones outwardly but can hardly do anything to keep the age related packages like diabetes, arthritis, cataract, blood pressure, Parkinson's, hearing problem etc.
People in villages never know when their kids were born and if you ask them they would either say the child was born when there was a heavy flood, drought, cyclone etc,,,, or would say the year next to Ambi's birth,Cheenu's birth.....
I was told for my brother my athai ( my father's sister ) gave the name as Nandagopal at the time of admission. We were given admission on the condition that we could touch our nose by taking the arm behind our head and if we could do so, we were enrolled for Class one.
In a hurry to send the kids to school so that the house gets ready for the next sibling trying to push out, they cooked the year of birth by a year ahead or later. My husband lost a year at the time of retirement and my father gained by a year!
But the scenario has changed three decades back, birth certificates were issued at the municipality and hospitals recorded the birth and death, it has become mandatory for getting the originals and multiple copies of them. No one could blame the height for the real age, but in buses and other places they have the height chart to know the truth of the correct age.The current generation and the next just grow so fast in height and girth that it becomes difficult to guess the age!
See what our nation is undergoing with the Army Gen goofing up his age and it's still a question is it 1950 or 1951?It's a shame on him ,he has used the forged age to get entry and when it comes to exit he wants to keep it? Where is the justice and logic?
There is a saying that one should not ask the age of a lady and the salary of a man.Now both are out and no one minds it.
Another aspect in a marital life is the wife is always young for the husband , he keeps getting everything in his place from basic water to mobile phone and bechari wife has to run errands for him till her death. Husbands have the retirement from job, but even if the wife retires from job, she has to wield the ladle in the kitchen instead of the pen ! For her there is no retirement, the husband keep saying they are getting old but it is never true for their partners. She keeps doing the same chores from day one day end.
But they do not leave any stone unturned for looking young, and they not ready to accept aging , they start dyeing the hair, dress up like young ones outwardly but can hardly do anything to keep the age related packages like diabetes, arthritis, cataract, blood pressure, Parkinson's, hearing problem etc.
Shakespeare said, 'Age cannot wither her , nor custom stale her infinite variety....."
but the truth is,' age cannot wither her nor her difficult customs stale her infinite courage......."
but the truth is,' age cannot wither her nor her difficult customs stale her infinite courage......."
beautiful post Mathangi. Yes there is no retirement for the ladies and we are more independant than men as we walk it up to get our needs even a glass of water.
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