A Centenarian’s testimony

Before birthday wishes pour in, I would like to make it categorically clear that please don’t congratulate me on turning 100! I haven’t hit a ton though I have played many cricket matches. At this age, needless to say, even a cricket bat would weigh a ton so better I don’t touch it. I may have many more years to live yet I think I need to grow up a little more and display the maturity commensurate to my age and experience.  Celebrating 100th birthday has never been my mission. Yet I have lived on to get that and I would celebrate it in my own way.

At 100, my hair is grey would be an understatement. I would rather say hair is the whitest with a bright luster that’s missing in my eyes. My vision is blurred and sheer brightness of a zero watt bulb may blind me up. Yet on a brighter side, I can see things around me, maybe not always as they are. Yes, my face is wrinkled and my hands are shaking. Celebrating a birthday with a trembling body gathering hundreds of people, oh man, I cannot at this age. That’s a reason I preferred to describe myself than posting my selfie as my face is not photogenic anymore!

I have a big family yet I live alone as I am ‘old enough’ to take care of myself. Not just relatives but friends, friends of friends and their friends to see the man who has turned 100. I don’t like to be a spectacle yet I welcome them all as they are close to someone I am close to. Most of them are like my great-great grandsons and daughters. Yet some of them say that I make them feel old and I take it as a compliment.

I discard gifts that are given to me with ‘respect’ to my age. I never turned to god seeking 100 years of life for me. Why would I gather His idols now when He is everywhere? I don’t cross His way and so He doesn’t mine! As I consider my abode to be as holy as a temple if not more, I don’t frequent religious places.
I worship flowers on trees and wouldn’t want to pluck them. I don’t believe in nipping any flowering into its bud. Blossomed flowers and rising and setting sun teach me laws of the nature.

A few mediapersons approached me to interview me on my 100th birthday. I failed to understand as I didn’t live any outstanding life to be featured in a newspaper. I don’t have any concrete message to give any message to give than a confession that I have lived numbers maybe and not life. I may have seen 100 summers but not tanned it out.
There is no secret of any longevity as I pos
sess a body that any 100-year-old would. Yes, my routine is I do my daily chores. I have a youthful exuberance but I carry out activities as per my physical limits.

At 100, there are no regrets when I say I have lived an ordinary life without extraordinary insights. All I would like to say, please don’t congratulate me on turning 100 because number 100 doesn’t mean 100 per cent. Please don’t take 100 years to understand this.   



P S: This blog celebrates its 100thpost 

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