Does age matter?
A former colleague today invited me for her birthday party. The invitation over phone was different. "Hey, Saju. I turned 40 today, just want to celebrate it. Please come to the Guindy Race Course club tonight." Normally, I avoid birthday parties. I hate being formal. If at all I want, my communist hangover comes as a barrier. But today's invitation was different. This is the first time someone inviting me for a birthday party after disclosing the age. How many women do this? I still remember how furious my mother was when my dad got her age wrong (two years more to her exact age) while booking a railway ticket some twenty years ago.
Let me tell you another incident from my childhood pages. The character was Sarada, a vegetable vendor. If you asked Sarada how old she was, she would immediately tell, "I am 38 now, and next Dhanu (March) I will turn 39." Nobody would believe Sarada's words. Because her elder son was 30 when she said this. Usually, Sarada would put the blame on her 'memory' and escape. After two years, you would get the same answer if you had asked her about her age.
Sarada's voter id says she is 62 but she doesn't want to believe it. "Once you reach 50, you are finished," she says. "I have one more year left," she told me last year when I met her at my hometown Thiruvananthapuram. There is a saying that "Don't ever ask a women about her age, and Don't ever ask a man about his salary". The first part is ok, but the second part needs to be revised. Here's another story.
I don't know how many of you remember Indian Bar Council's 1997 rule, asking law graduates to undergo one year apprenticeship under a senior lawyer. I was one of those unfortunate kids. We were given two diaries to register the day-to-day proceedings in the court. Dress code: Black blazer and maroon tie. The first page of the diary had personal data, including date of birth. There was one curious character called Sudeep, who used to hide his age. He was much senior to us and we all knew this. But once he joined the law college, the age digits stopped moving. One day he claimed he was still 28 while his actual age in the bar council list showed 32. It was actually fun. One day, we decided to check Sudeep's diary. We couldn't control but laugh. Only the age box was empty.
A couple of months ago, when I turned 37 my editor was the first one who wished me at office. "Saju, how old are you?," he asked, for which I couldn't answer for a moment. As children, we were not allowed to 'say' our age on birthdays. So I was not prepared for a question like this. Blank...The exact digit was not clear. The counting began from 1972. "Yeah, I am 38".
Let me tell you another incident from my childhood pages. The character was Sarada, a vegetable vendor. If you asked Sarada how old she was, she would immediately tell, "I am 38 now, and next Dhanu (March) I will turn 39." Nobody would believe Sarada's words. Because her elder son was 30 when she said this. Usually, Sarada would put the blame on her 'memory' and escape. After two years, you would get the same answer if you had asked her about her age.
Sarada's voter id says she is 62 but she doesn't want to believe it. "Once you reach 50, you are finished," she says. "I have one more year left," she told me last year when I met her at my hometown Thiruvananthapuram. There is a saying that "Don't ever ask a women about her age, and Don't ever ask a man about his salary". The first part is ok, but the second part needs to be revised. Here's another story.
I don't know how many of you remember Indian Bar Council's 1997 rule, asking law graduates to undergo one year apprenticeship under a senior lawyer. I was one of those unfortunate kids. We were given two diaries to register the day-to-day proceedings in the court. Dress code: Black blazer and maroon tie. The first page of the diary had personal data, including date of birth. There was one curious character called Sudeep, who used to hide his age. He was much senior to us and we all knew this. But once he joined the law college, the age digits stopped moving. One day he claimed he was still 28 while his actual age in the bar council list showed 32. It was actually fun. One day, we decided to check Sudeep's diary. We couldn't control but laugh. Only the age box was empty.
A couple of months ago, when I turned 37 my editor was the first one who wished me at office. "Saju, how old are you?," he asked, for which I couldn't answer for a moment. As children, we were not allowed to 'say' our age on birthdays. So I was not prepared for a question like this. Blank...The exact digit was not clear. The counting began from 1972. "Yeah, I am 38".
Comments
Any plan to open a hair dyeing unit in Palakkad?