****** OLD is GOLD *******

Dear All

What is that you see common in these photographs ? I have carefully chosen people of repute from different walks of life so that you do not end up with wrong guesses :-)

Most of you (indeed all of us feel alike - is my firm conviction; Thoughts and Opinions may differ !!) could have guessed it right......Yes, its the overflowing grace and the height of nature's beauty that is common for all of them -regardless of what they are famous for .... 

(For the current generation, few additional words about the last photo which is down right - he is Jiddu Krishnamoorthy, a world renowned philosopher who was one of my foundations during youth).

It is a coincidence that during past ten days, I had at least met 4 - 5 old gentlemen who needed some one to brood about their ill health (a close relative included.....name is irrelevant). All I could do to those  poor souls was to lend my ears and wear an empathetic smile ; And to couple of them who are bit close, I was holding their hands in silence.

When we utter the word "peak" we always visualize a normal curve OR some thing like the shape of mountain. Very true, even in human lives, our economic and health being is at the peak when we are in the middle of the life (these days 40 to even up to 60 since field of medicine has advanced to keep us without any ailments - if not healthy. But when it comes to a better understanding about life, its design, the minds of people around us, Old people score the best. 

Grace flows out of them as emotions become subdued.....!! There could be exceptions but even the crudest old man will be much better off than what he was in his youthful days, right ?

It is not without logic, a young pretty poetess of Sangha Kaalam asked for a boon to the God she worshipped to turn as an old woman. We got an "Avvai Paati" out of this girl who went around the country and went on to the peak of her life by being an "oldie" for a longer span of life - unaffected by the vices of the youth & undisturbed by the menfolk around her.

It is not with any sense of compulsion to make a post on Monday, I am penning this down. Avvai had been one of an inspirations to me for quite a long time ever since I heard her story. And my regards to old people has been consistent for quite a long time. It is not out of place to give link to the obituary that I penned down for our Pattabi Periappa when he died three years back. Please go thru' if time permits. (some factual mistake which I did has been corrected in the "comments" by my sister Kalyani. So, please don't miss the comments too)

http://agandam.blogspot.in/2011/12/blog-post.html

With Love // Suren