Touching Sweet 60!

Courtesy the profession I am in, I have this privilege of putting pen to paper on any topic which holds my interest and which can appeal to a varied lot of readers. One such occasion has presented itself in this case which has made me write this short piece of nostalgia.

The year 2021 has indeed been special for me and my friends, some of whom I have been in touch for more than 40 years. Our association goes back to the high school days and courtesy the social media platforms like WhatsApp, many of us have got back into active contact with each other, exchanging inane forwards and once a while seriously debating on social issues.

Specially, from the first half of this ongoing year, many schoolmates were queuing up to call it a day from active professional service as they were turning 60. When the first of my 'old' pals turned a senior citizen in May last, it was received with a mix of disbelief and relief at the same time. Many of us refused to believe that one among us was no more eligible to stay put in the rat race, even as we all rushed to congratulate the senior in the batch who could breast the tape first. The practical ones already had the list ready, alerting the remaining ones to wait for the D-day. Over the past six months, I now recollect, five of my buddies have turned 60 and counting. Yes, it has given me that rare eligibility to make fun of them for turning 'useless' in the social circuit while the ineligibles send me dampeners saying that it is just a few more months for me before I too become 'obsolete' in the same field.

Jokes apart, being of the analytical kind, I have often enquired from my friends what they wished to take up and how they would like to look back on their long careers in which they had touched impressive heights. In my group, I have bankers, top police officials, senior public sector bosses, insurance honchos and businessmen who are still remembered for the peaks they touched during their active years.

Quite expectedly, many of them said they were glad to be alive amidst this pandemic panic and would surely work out a simple, stress-free lifestyle which would enable them give back something to the society. One of my bum chums is yet to bite the bait which I have dangled before him to write about his long years as a meritorious police officer, even as I offered to 'ghost' write it for him!

With others, I only have this warm, feel good feeling of having maintained my relationship with them, irrespective of whatever levels of influence they command in the society, merely as their friend from the younger days when all of us enjoy the common luxury of nostalgia and the time to recount the days gone by. I should also confess that I look forward to my next birthday, which will enable me join their club and jointly experience the wave of emotions which must have engulfed them over these days. For the time being, we are readying up for a big bash for one of my friends, S Yogeswar Rao aka Yogi, who will touch 60, on November 11!