"WHAT??? AT 72…!!!”

At 72, Ramkrishna looked very healthy, happy, and playful. He had a very strict schedule for the day; started his day with a morning walk, then his morning tea accompanied with reading newspaper which would go on for a couple of hours, every line of the paper has to be read.

He would have his breakfast and walk down to the local library, where he would read magazine or few more papers. He used to always feel why not a single soul visit the place, he would some time discuss politics or literally matters with the library-in-charge as they both would be alone there.

Coming back home, he would have his lunch and take an hour’s nap; he would then switch on his system and with his hot coffee, would become active on social media. He was very active with his views on twitter. His grandson has taught him how to operate different social media and used to chat on Skype with them.

After a couple of hours, he would walk down to the colony park where he sometime finds his retired friends. When they are not around, he would put an effort to mingle with young children but they were not keen talking to him.

While walking back home, as a ritual he would buy some fruits, which he would have as his dinner. He would wait for weekends when his kids would do a video chat for some time.

Ramakrishna was a banker for 30 long years. He was born in a humble family in a remote village and his parents were not very qualified so they made it a point to educate both kids; Ramkrishna and his elder brother… 

They studied hard and both of them landed in good job. He became a banker and his brother joined the telecom.  Both got busy in their daily life, a very usual and normal life; marriage, kids and then responsibility of kids. They both made sure their kids got better qualifications than them as well as better jobs….

And Ramakrishna always thought that’s what life is. He was successful, he used to think, and “I have achieved what I set out for…”

Both his sons are working as computer engineers in USA,and  daughters-in-laws also; grandchildren today are US citizens. He was proud of the facts and never missed an opportunity to tell it to anyone.

After he retired, first few months went on enjoying the leisure he got and catching with all family functions which he was missing. He also visited US with his wife for around four months. After few weeks, he was feeling suffocated and was keen to come back.

Two years into his retirement his wife suffered a massive cardiac arrest which she couldn’t survive. His kids came from US and after the final rites wanted him to accompany with them instead of staying here in India. Ramakrishna said, "I would like to stay here, whenever I feel the need of coming, I will surely join you in US". Also thought who would take his property here.

After some discussion, his children gave up and asked him to do whatever he feels comfortable. Once his children and all relatives left, in the first week he was not sure where to start, He would watch television or just go through old albums or pick up calls and speak to his relatives… How long could he have done that?

A few weeks down, he knew this will not help. He looked for some part time jobs so that he could use his time wisely. But at 62, who would give him a job, when much younger people could do the job at a lesser money?

One fine day, he decided to go to his village where his parents had left some land for him and do some cultivation and live in a non-polluted place. He got his old house repaired and moved in there, He thought people in village will be relatively free and they could spend time with him.

When he looked for people to work in farm, he didn’t find young people. Most of the workers were old and not very active. Still he tried his best to do some kind of farming. When he enquired about the younger workers. A village social activists informed him that as your kids have gone abroad to make better living, their kids have also gone to cities in India to make a better living.

After a year of failure in farming and losing some amount of money, he understood that neither he has the knowledge of farming nor his approach was right for farming. So he moved back to his city house which was left locked. His need for medical facilities was also a reason to come back.

 He seemed to be happy but loneliness was eating him from inside… It was more than 2 years since his wife expired. He would not leave a reason for not attending any invitation. He would attend all function in his family and friends; not having a healthy routine was spoiling his health and one day he was admitted in hospital. He was not having an urge to live; more than his physical conditions it was his mental health which was poor.

His children came to visit him and insisted that he move permanently with them. He was reluctant but agreed. He was concerned about his house, a few plots that he had bought and a few acres of land in his village. 

Ramakrishna suggested that he would first sell his property and then join them in US. His children helped him in giving advertisement in Newspapers and Web. He wanted to keep the house till he was alive. The valuation of his other properties was close to two crore. He suggested equal share to both of them.

They smiled and said, "You keep the money with you, we will take it whenever we need or we may take after you, it is just 1.5million $. We earn that much in six months so use as much you want and we will share whatsoever is left with it. That’s when he remembered one of his close friends saying “if your kids are good and doing well in life they would not require your money because for them the value of what you give will be not much; otherwise if kids are into bad habits and not doing well, nothing will be sufficient for them.” He used to always suggest that “you should also spend some time and money on yourself”.

Today it looked true to him, his wife always wanted to travel to pilgrimage place in north India and had a dream of visiting Andaman for holiday, which they never did because they wanted to save money for the kids.

On the pretext of selling the property he stayed back in India and started following a strict schedule as asked by the doctor. He started travelling alone to all the places he wanted to visit but going alone looked very boring….vacuum was becoming bigger…

He was looking for meaning his life, propose of his existence…

There were times when he was travelling alone and was next to sea shore. He had walked deep into the sea to end his life or thought to walk on a railway line but some power brought him back to his senses.

When he was celebrating his 70th birthday with a few of his friends in a retirement community, he met his old friend Ms. Balaambal and they started spending a lot of time talking to each other and liking each other’s company…

It has been two years by now and both wanted to inform their children about wanting to stay together but were not sure how kids and society will react… 

Today was the weekend when Ramakrishna’s kids would do a skype call and he wanted to introduce Balaambal.

As the call came Ramakrishna sat in fount or camera and she sat next to him. Grandson noticed Balaambal sitting next him and asked, "Who is the paati sitting next to you?" And He said, "She is going to be your paati very soon…."

Son and daughter-in-law reacted in an unbelievable voice, "WHAT??? AT 72 ...!!!”