Of happy times with the elderly

 

 

 

 

TO, SEE a young lady -- a post-graduate student -- accompany her grand-father almost every morning to the park for a walk and also to the temple for prayers day after day, week after week, month after month not just tolerating the chore but also enjoying it, is a rare sight. When one comes across such an example, one feels happily surprised. This was how the loud-thinker reacted when he came across a young college girl accompanying her grand-father to the park and to the temple. “Don’t you feel bored by the every-day assignment?”, he then asked her when a friend introduced his grand-daughter one morning. “Not at all”, she said, smiling. “I enjoy his company. I enjoy the way he talks to his friends. I listen to those calm conversations he has with his friends. And when he sits down when he gets tired, I complete a few rounds of the park for my exercise, and then join him on the bench and open a book to read. I really have a good time. Once I finish this happy routine, I realise that I will have a good day,” she added. That spoke volumes of the fine grooming the girl has had. For, in these days when most young people are wary of spending time with the family elders, particularly senior citizens in the family or elsewhere, to come across such a young person is a happy occasion.

 

From his own experience from his young days, the loud-thinker can assert that interacting with senior people is truly a happy thing to do. For, when the senior people talk of their experiences of the life they have had, they share insights that cannot be available in text books or elsewhere easily. The loud-thinker always found himself fortunate to have spent a lot of time with the seniors in his own family and elsewhere. As a young journalist, he found interacting with senior people -- from any profession -- especially rewarding. To talk with humorist Kaka Hathrasi or with litterateur Pu. La. Deshpande or with Baba Amte or with litterateur and thinker Waman Krishna Chorghade or with the Gandhian philosopher Dada Dharmadhikari (all of whom were many, many decades older in age and so accomplished in diverse fields) used to be such a terrific experience, such a great learning time. So, when the Dalai Lama asked Baba Amte if the humanist was contented with what he had achieved, Baba responded, in effect, ‘Your holiness, I am not contented because I have still to achieve a lot. But I am a happy person.

 

For, my work gives me happiness.’ Only wise people can make such a fine distinction -- between two similar-meaning words. And that comes not from just bookish scholarship, but from wisdom they gather out of long years of life. As a young journalist, the loud-thinker was often blessed with opportunities with people senior to him in every sense. From them, he tried to pick up some sanity, a lot of dignity, and massive doses of integrity. He can state clearly that if he had not been able to have such connect with elderly people, he would have missed a lot in life. All these thoughts welled up when the friend introduced his college-going grand-daughter on the morning walk. He also felt happy that the young lady seemed to have realised the happiness of the time with her grand-father.