The title of the write-up today is a take on the first line from Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium", and continues in a way the theme of the blog yesterday. Let me begin the blog with the assertion that ageism marks the Indian ethos now. What exactly is ageism?
Ageism is an attitude which discriminates against a person on the basis of age. It is indeed rather cruel, and absolutely , pathetically vicious. It often makes one suspicious of the motives behind it. Let me give you an example from cricket, the quasi-religion of our country. People who would not be able to hold the cricket bat straight to hit a four in the `gulley' cricket would be holding forth on when a Dhoni or a Sachin should retire! The legends were literally harassed in to retirement. After all, they have set records at the international level. Surely they would know how much cricket is left in them. Why would they drag on to make a fool of themselves? But who can advise the advisers?
This attitude of `use-n-throw' was earlier never a part of the Indian ethos. In fact, grey hair were revered. Their wisdom born out of experience was validated. It was honoured as a lodestar that shows the right direction. Given the LPG paradigm shift and the resulting `golden handshake', the parameters started changing. The exponential growth of the population and the job crunch began to appear diametrically opposed. In the glorification of the Indian `demographic dividend', the age old respect for the experience-enabled wisdom was washed away. The cultural ethos changed as well. The community living of the joint family variety gave way to individual space(s). As a result, the old population, often absolutely non-productive, seemed to be an ungainly burden. Why, the government had to usher in a law for taking care of old parents/relatives!
How is this issue related to the central focus of this blog? A fall-out of the open as well as implied ageism is ignoring the health of the elderly, both by individuals and the system. True, geriatrics and gerontology have been academic foci since the beginning of this millenium. Indeed, number of old age homes have sprung up in big cities, though the plight of the aged in small cities and/or village makes imagination stagger. In big places, with mock concern, they may call you granma/Ajji or Kaku/aunt, but would they accord you the respect due ? Big, fat chance!
When I had to take Aai to hospital due to asphyxiation because the powder of the prescribed tablets got pushed down her wind pipe instead of the food pipe, the general tone of the Emergency Room and/or the ICU doctors was I was wasting their time. Otherwise, the suggestion was I should allow aggressive intervention, making you wonder at the entire curious logic.
It was not as if the second wave of the dreaded Covid was at its peak. Certainly not. Even during the epidemic, do not the healthy old people have any right to emergency medicine? The nurses in the ward, especially, would treat every old patient as if she is a burden to be borne. No hospital reduces the treatment fees because the patient is old, does it? If not, why the indiffrence? Hence the title of the blog today.
People around would be no better. Relatives who would show up just twice or thrice a year would hint year after year that now would be `the' time. And it was supposed to be a joke, giving rise to sniggers! An old person, ravged by twenty odd years of blood pressure and diabetes, may forget a detail or two here or there, or may get confused now and then. Absolutely normal, in my opinion, as I have been the caretaker. But the direct comments and indirect smirking suggestions would tear one's heart apart. Tough time being old indeed!
I would conclude the blog today with a quote from Yeats again:
All that man is,
All mere complexities,
The fury and the mire of human veins.
pratima@old deserve to be treated as gold.
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