The title of the post is a Hindi word which means "Old age".
I certainly believe that age is a number in side our head. If we attach it to ourselves, we start acting it . And acting it as per stereotypes set by society is not something I believe in. But there are some aspects where I can genuinely feel the encroachment of age. Let me elaborate :)
I remember in standard 8 chatting with my best friend. We were both die hard movie buffs. And we got chatting how our parents did not watch many movies. It seemed out right ridiculous. We were like "Never can we ever not be watching movies!". But I reached that stage some 5 years back. Chiyaa's birth drastically reduced my screen time. I was left with a lot of time to read, when I fed her or tried to put her to sleep. So the reading hours notched up. The interest in movies and tele-series waned. Movies were a major setback since there was just no change of watching any in a single installment. Watching them over multiple installments simply ruined the fun of them. The only movies that held some sway were the Avengers ones. K and I used to book holidays to watch them, and superhero movies are a big hit for me. But otherwise movies are a big no for me. I have caught up with my parents and cannot and do not watch movies any more. In fact I have pretty much given up on all sorts of television shows. This has given me the opportunity to devour numerous books which is a far better engagement I feel.
As an aside I will contradict myself by stating that last week I watched a simply awesome movie called Is Love Enough, Sir? It is a very heart touching and short movie. Definitely worth a watch. It has moved me so much, that I might do a separate post on it.
Right, so that is one thing that is definitely a tick against old age criteria, apart from the obvious physical ones like grey hair and reduced metabolism. Another change that totally utterly baffles me is - I am changing into a morning person!! I was totally a night owl. In fact in one of my older posts I do claim night to be the best time of the day for me. Not any more!! The lockdowns have a bit to do with this. To get some quiet time I used to wake up earlier than my usual time. This has become sort of a habit now. Anything later than 0615 feels like late to me! I have to be downstairs with my coffee by 0630 else I feel like I am running really late. So much so that over the weekends too, I somehow have a sleep disruption around 7 ish. Some weekend mornings I do end up waking up at 0730! I just drag the sleeping hours to get the "weekend feel". But I wake up and all my morning chores are over by 1030! That is definitely not something my younger self would have done. Again I would take it as a positive change.
So for now status check is on balance! I have two obvious negatives : reduced metabolism and greying hair. And two very effective positives : time for books and turning into a morning person. Watch this space as the clock ticks further :)
