"A Post to Remember"

Prasanna was 95 when he died. I had a nice friendship with him. I am 90 years old physically but 25years old mentally. Senility has given me more things than it has taken. I always have this hope towards future though i know that end is near. My first publication was in Ananda vikatan magazine in 1944. I was a young satyagrahi then. I was taken aback by Gandhi. Many young women like me were drawn towards the national movement then, just because of Gandhi. With his principles and methods, he represented a father-like figure for us.

Things apart, I used to have a really nice talk with Prasanna till his death last month. We were walking partners for 10years. Chronic diabetes had made my doctor to prescribe for walks everyday for me. It was then I saw the real senile world.

The world of many old people I met during those walks, were loomed by fear of death. They portray themselves as enacting the last sequence in the drama of life. Soberness, sorrow and desperation always dominated their thoughts and speeches. Well, I am not of that kind. I worked in archeological survey of India for 30 long years. I had traveled places and had excavated lot of sites. I had lived a meaningful life and I am ready to accept death at any moment. So that makes everyday a fun ride.

Among all the walking partners, Prasanna is a different person. He talks about medicines and how herbs are better alternatives to british introduced english medicine. He used to say, before English medicines came to India people used to be treated for thousands of years with natural medicine and it was highly effectual.

It may seem like a mundane talk for all those M-Tv generation people reading my post, but at the age of 80 you hardly can find people talking like this.

Age hood in India brings tremendous amount of respect, but least recognition. The two main things that needs attention in India are Voltage (electricity) and Old age. I had applied to work as a freelance writer in local journal, just to be turned down with a note saying that I am old and I wanted rest. I am not cutting logs or laying roads everyday that I need rest. I am still active in my mind. So is Prasanna and he also had this same complaint towards the worlds view of the aged people.

Well to recount my past.. The 1970s were the toughest years. I worked in ASI office in Delhi. It was in those years that Indira Gandhi had declared emergency and everything was in a state of chaos. But for the elite in Delhi, we always had enough food and enough wine in our casket. But still some mysterious calm was engulfing the air those days.

Then came the dream 80s. and then promising 90s. I am not going to narrate all the incidents in detail and make this post as a look-back on history.

All I want to say is, whatever recaps of the past that you see in news channels, I have lived through it in flesh and blood.

Oh no!! I wept like anything hearing Rajiv's death, I cried like a baby when I got my first Maruti 800 car. I am a citizen of this billion large Republic of India right from its inception.

I am really happy that our young generation of IT engineers are making waves around the world with their intelligence. They say that the Indian economy is one of the strongest in the world and that we are slated to be a super-power soon. I have heard this slogans many times, but this time it seems to be real. I can visually see the changes in the society. It is a good sign. Of all things I had dreamt of, my greatest ambition is to die in a developed India.

But for your information, My grand-daughter is in Houston and my grand-son is in Australia. It is one thing which Prasanna always didn't like and the one topic which we debated about most with hot mug of English tea.