Song of old age
by P. C. Sharma
The district town of Rewari in Haryana with its broad roads and rows of flats is fast emerging from the shadows of its rural past to catch up with its neighbouring cousin Gurgaon. A function organised by the NHRC and Janata Kalyan Samiti the other day to discuss the problems of senior citizens was a first of its kind event there.
It was a function meant to advise the young and not so young about protecting the rights of the old and very old. Chaaya Devi, aged 102, led a troup of folk singers to sing the theme song:
"Ram budhapa mat dena (Oh God, don’t give old age)
Je budhapa dena chaho (If old age is a must)
Veer mard ka sath diyo (Give company of a brave man)
Shravan jaisa lal diyo (a son like Shravan)
Muthi mein dhan diyo (Money in hand)
Gode mei jaan diyo (Strength in the knees)
Swarg lok mein baas diyo (abode in heaven)
Some experts on health care and medicine gave impressive presentations to this audience. Government representatives spoke about the virtues of the new legislation, the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, old age schemes and the NGOs dwelt on their own activities and programmes for the senior citizens. The young DC, SP and the pretty lady ADC talked about what the District Administration could do for them. But Chayya Devi’s rondo of native wisdom rendered in her birdlike tone epitomised all that the State and society need to do for the elderly persons.
All the elderly persons with faces wizened with age but chiselled in shape sitting unbent, men with their heads swathed in turbans formed an assembly of an age receding into the past and contrasting with the generation called modern.
Their life stories speak of a different social milieu. Simple lifestyles in large joint families and abiding social bonds they never tire of recounting. The strength of their bodies was bread of millet, milk and ghee, and the spice of their life the ‘addas’ and ‘hukkas’ under well-shaded trees. Never would they imagine a generation different from theirs that would need ponderous exhortations and legislation to make the present generation to look after them.
Raj Rani, 103 years old, happy to be in the midst of her age group, though, not knowing all that we spoke in a lingo which was not hers, sat all through. She had her own lesson in longevity to impart: happy life in the midst of her progeny and regular diet of milk, ghee and lassi. Small in height, with a cheerful disposition, Raj Rani rose to welcome me with a shawl. It was my delight to put the shawl back on her shoulders.
Energy and freshness of the youth can make a world of difference to the world of the elderly. A caring society and a welfare state can give them an ‘abode of heaven’, here on this earth itself which Chayya Devi longed for in her song. Their experience is a treasure and their wisdom a guide. Saying nothing more than this I took leave of this rare assembly wishing them a long, healthy and happy life.
Source Link: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110218/edit.htm#5