The Agitated Old Man

Amartya Sen’s “The Argumentative Indian “and Sanjay Baru’s “The Accidental Prime Minister” inspired me to title this piece about my old age antics as “The Agitated Old Man” to share with my readers, if you see one that is, my reactions these days to men and matters.

In my younger days I would follow the laissez faire policy, which in one of my books on political science, was explained as “let the sleeping dogs lie” policy. But not anymore, I now have to willy -nilly express my opinion on everything happening around me. They may pertain to domestic, national, international issues on topics ranging from local vegetable prices in APMC market in Mumbai, MeToo campaigns Mollywood and elsewhere, destruction and construction of places of worship, global warming, water leakage seen on the Taj Mahal and other miscellaneous matters like Chandrayan, the present era is of peace and not war, Vietnam boat people and so on.  

Why this urge in me in my sunset years? My reckoning is because I am tired of doing all the things expected of from persons like me.  Let me list down these. As a retiree, my daily routine should follow a regulated regime of reading our ancient spiritual and religious books, performing daily poojas and reciting hymns in praise of gods and goddesses, get up early, bathe, do pranayama, observe fasts, counsel on family issues quoting from Vedas and Gita and overall lead a life of ennui and disinterest. None of these functions were in my daily time table during my working life till my seventieth year. No doubt I earned respect and recognition too.   

My problem now is what do I do with my time and accumulated experience and expertise in sifting through issues and separating the grain from the chaff. Should all this go to waste? Thank  God, my intellect has not retired from working and my analytical instincts are in good condition.  Of course, there may here and there be some tinge of cynicism or even exasperation but you cannot fault the objectivity in the arguments.   

So, I spend my considerable waking time on reflecting on everything as mundane as road accidents or as routine as sexual abuse of children and women or serious matters such as One Nation No Freebee or Arctic Melt down.  The beauty is that my fertile mind is able to dissect the problem and throw up solutions acceptable to all and implementable. I err only when I offer these outputs to others who appear to agree in my presence but I don’t know what they say behind my back.

 Who cares as long as the Constitution gives me the freedom of thought and speech?