Time Warp

Which reminds me of the famous and captivating photograph,The Afghan Girl,that appeared on a National Geographic cover in 1984. Often referred to as the “Afghan Mona Lisa”,Sharbat Gula was traced 20 years later. Years of tough living had ravaged her appearance,because with time our lives reflect on our faces. Whenever a poll is conducted among healthy,middle-aged people about an ideal lifespan,the answer is almost unanimous: as long as good health lasts. But pose the same question to cancer survivors,they have a different perspective on the hardships of illness. It’s not that bad after all. The human species is hardwired to adapt,since at the crux of it everyone wants to live.

Yet another headline recently read ,“28 is the new old”. This is apparently the defining age when you no longer want to waste time in nightclubs and would prefer to be in a real relationship to partying with friends. Other changes that suggest youth is almost over are that you prefer cooking to takeaway and thoughts of owning your own property begin to take shape. Going by these contradictory findings,maybe those relationships we read about: Ashton Kutcher,28,and Demi Moore,44,or Woody Allen,71,and Soon Yi Previn,36,are not very odd,after all. And that once you hit the end of your youth,at the ripe old age of 28,there’s nothing to fret about,you’ve got forty years to feel exactly the same before you have to worry about old age.

Maybe its evolution,but most of us feel younger than we are. Feeling youthful is linked with better health and a longer life. Twenty-eight being the magical turning point has some logic in the Western sense: it’s the time you think about settling down and you’ve sort of figured out in which direction your career is heading. In an Indian context,this rarely applies,and even some of the most emancipated people I know,fret about not being married by then. But I’m happy to note,though this is a small minority in India,many of the 28-year-olds I know seem utterly oblivious of their youth ending,and don’t seem to be in any hurry to take life’s big decisions. Compare this to 10,maybe 15 years ago,when me and many of my friends got married,all between the ripe old ages of 24 to 26,or at the height of our youth. Now,with the clarity of hindsight we all shudder at our own stupidity and it never ceases to surprise us that some of us are still married. It’s pure simple luck. Or lack of a better option,since we all have to make the most from the options available in front of us. Of late,I’ve had to deal with pesky,existential questions from a curious nine-year-old. Why are we here and for what purpose? I’ve discovered,the simplest answer is to be good,and more importantly,to have a good time. At every age.

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