Life At Forty

By Vaishali Pattni

Whenever I used to hear about some one talking about age forty, I always wondered about how my life would be at forty. So, today here I am standing at this age feels like srkg student writing first time in their maths books the spelling FORTY-40. Honestly speaking my tummy rumbles while writing about my experience, not judging myself but bit happy, bit scared and lot of excitement. Now wondering what is there to be excited about?

First of all this is the actual feeling of adulthood where we are a bridge with a generation who is old and experienced and a generation which is young who is more advanced and with dreams and hopes. We are stuck between these two where we are trying to cope up with the younger while holding the hands of older generation. We have our preferences, idealogies, thoughts but are stopped by younger generation telling we are old fashioned and by older telling that we are too forward. I sometimes wonder this gap is always there but why we get affected at this age only. Hope to find the answer soon.

Now, secondly this year I saw death of two of my closest people, you must wondering what's new in this, life and death is a circle. Yes, till date I was also under the same impression but at this stage or rather age, I understood its a emotional and sentimental situation where in we need to be strong enough to handle it. Who thought the song which was made and sung 65 years before will be understood only when we are at this age,

"Duniya Mein hum aye hain to jeena hi padega. "

Thirdly we are at an era that we invented technology but aren't able to digest that this is what we have given our younger generation. We scold and shout at them but who is actually responsible for all this mess? We want them to play outside but we ourself are into the idiot box and smart phones fooling around. We wanted fast money but aren't able to cope up when these young lot is making quick money. We didn't want ourself to be judged but every single time we judge these youngsters for everydamn thing they do from clothes to things they own including their preference for their life. We didn't like the meddling aunties or relatives but see, today we are one of them. We always hoped that we should not be forced for marriage or for kids but as soon as we see anyone crossing 25, we start giving advice. No doubt our intentions are not to hurt or force them but my question is when we were of their age, we didn't like it then who are we to interfere in their life?

All of a sudden the pace of life seems to be slow and gradual, you are no longer worried about your job, money or kids. Yeaa, yea, I know some of them are still having issues but it is less than what we were facing when we were young (now don't judge me for saying I am old or something). Or may be we are more capable of handling the life more openly with open arms and heart! Something like"ऐ ज़िन्दगी गले लगा ले

ऐ ज़िन्दगी गले लगा ले

हम ने भी तेरे हर इक गम को

गले से लगाया है

है न!!

Last but not the least - as life have two sides happy and sad but we are the same we see a silver lining so that there will be a space through which light gets in.

So ending this start of a new journey with loads of positivity and happiness. At least I was able to see this beautiful world for 40 years. Some moments came as a lesson, some as a fun but some as a memory which I will cherish forever.

By Vaishali Pattni