I never had a problem-free childhood. Well, it doesn’t mean my childhood was bad but there were a set of problems in my childhood that I couldn’t solve as I was new to challenging situations. Well, hand to mouth is the amount of salary that my parents used to earn and now, fortunately, even my in-laws have the same financial situation. So, having a vehicle like a car, bike or any other luxury items at home is not something that we could even afford in our dreams.
UK starts 4th Covid booster for all elderly over 75, high risk patients
As I entered my teenage, my father who was then in his late 50s, started to show his health symptoms that were on a declining trend. He got retired quite early because his company shut its doors due to the growing modernization. It was his health issues like unable to hear, unable to eat and walk properly that made me take unconventional professions like counseling, sign language interpreting, content writing among others. I was only trying to have a job that could pay my bills while I could focus my day-to-day work timings to care for my aging father.
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My dad passed away at the age of 66 giving me a life lesson that no money can buy love and care. He lived his young age in a struggle with trying to get us educated and having a small home of his own. He passed away with so many lessons for me to continue helping others who are in need and also make a strong foothold of myself while society has its own limited thinking on every damn thing that we do. Care is such a small word but it has so much meaning and depth attached to it.
Now as I live with my elderly mother-in-law who has her own old age issues, I only realized that the depth of all her painful talks and thoughts come from the core reasons that she felt neglected or didn’t care during her childhood and young age. After all, no middle-class citizen of India came from the prosperity and smooth living that only was reserved for the riches. In my conversations with the past and the present in dealing and thinking about the elderly, I have come to the conclusion that all they need in today’s modern times is LOVE, AFFECTION, CARE, A LISTENING EAR OF THEIR STORIES that may or may not be factually correct.
Elderly people of today’s India really have seen all the kinds of transformations from writing with an ink pen to a ball pen and now on the laptop and smartphones. They have seen how technology has transformed the way things worked from the olden times to modern times and thus, they need to be understood for their complaints, grievances, and displeasure that are stemming from the growing insecurity of the modern world developments that they seem as challenges because their levels of adaptability, patience, and adjustments are just on the declining trend. So, if you meet an elderly person today while you walk or in your neighborhood or at your house itself, just give them a smile and a helping hand because that is all they expect more than any other riches or comforts.
