Next week as I cross another milestone on my life’s track; I’ll have a greyer scalp, skin with furcate wrinkles and more pigment spots, and somewhat dimmed sensory faculties. Thankfully, my cognition remains sharp, as I’ve consciously exercised and groomed my brain more than my body!
The tremor, flab, and fatigue apart; I have accrued requisite experiences to deal with challenges of life with courage and conviction. I have never feared ageing nor attempted to decelerate or camouflage this gerontological progression with nutraceuticals and cosmetics. The only permanent prosthesis in my body are two titanium plates along my right tibia, and the 16 screws that hold them in place. This expensive metal will stay and go with me, defeating the Geeta quote… “Kya lekar aye ho, kya lekar jaoge”.
The elderly have been conventionally construed as individuals with ‘built-up sagacity’ and worthy of respect. As a child, ‘grey locks’ impressed me more than ‘goldilocks’, so much so that I’ve sprinkled talcum on my head and stood before the mirror admiring myself. Over the years, the chronic anxiety of my parent’s failing health, and then a ‘deep dive’ into academics and research hastened in my body the processes that drive ageing, and I had precocious greying in my early 30s. In my 40s after seeing my ECG, I remember my physician telling me that my ‘heart age’ is more than my chronological age on my driving licence! Perhaps I’ve been a bit too harsh on my ‘deha’; in pursuit of the wellbeing of my ‘atman’, that impersonal essence of my life.
As I stand at the doorstep of the ‘hexagenerian club’; the graphs of my visits to temples and clinics run parallel, I receive WhatsApp posts and parody on ageing and retirement, fellow travellers demonstrate courtesy by offering seats, ex-students and relatives ask when I retired from service, young women do not hesitate to shake and hold my hands, teens bend in reverence and banks have started sending reminders asking me to declare my nominees.
Through my growing years ageing did not cause me much anguish, though the thought of dying unnerved me; and the fear that I’d lose my mother someday, hit me the most. Honestly, I am pained at every single life that passes away; not only human!
Despite my spiritual leanings and learning in biology that ‘no life is immortal’ and that cells are ‘programmed to die’, and notwithstanding lessons in ecology that ‘death and decomposition is the only way to recycle nutrients and energy’, I value and fear loss of physical existence.
Though spiritually and organically many of us believe that the cycle of life and death is inevitable and accept that all that is born is bound to age and is destined to die; the quest for eternal youth and longevity are among the top endeavours of human mind and action.
The faithful accept death as ‘God’s will’, and attribute it to a deific purpose that shall be revealed once our transition is complete, as if in a cosmic drama scripted by one’s actions and moral scores.
The ancient Greeks devoted considerable thought to the desire of eternal youth and everlasting life, in their myths, poetry, and philosophy. In her zest to seek immortality for her husband Tithonus, Eos forgets to ask for everlasting youth resulting in her husband getting old and wasted. Greek goddess Hebe is the ‘cup bearer’ serving ambrosia and nectar to gods and goddesses, the fabled drink and food for longevity and immortality.
Indian mythological immortals like Markandey trigger our imagination, besides the anecdote in Vishnupurana of churning of oceans for Amrut, the ‘nectar of immortality’. But even the near-immortal mythological demon like Arunasura who had Brahma’s boon that no man, woman, weapon, two or four legged creatures would be able to kill him; was decimated by a swarm of wasps and bees (six legged insects); emphasizing the ultimate truth that no one can escape death!
The human quest for rejuvenation, eternal youth and immortality is ancient and continuing. The search for that miraculous ‘Chiranjeevi’ state has been arduous and met with many challenges and dead-ends, and yet human spirit is indefatigable, and we have not relented in our quest.
While the knowledge of our mortality amplifies our appreciation of our finite lives, it gives us a sense of urgency to halt ageing and arrest death. But critical life processes are not a software to be hacked but unfold according to a genetic programme. However, this programme can be corrupted by our lifestyle, food habits and environment.
The cell is a microcosm of life, with dynamic molecular activity pushing the ‘engine of life’. Disruption of this intracellular ‘molecular sport’ can affect the longevity of cells, causing them to die prematurely. The key to prolonging life thus lies locked in these cellular processes. Max Plank Institute for Biology of ageing has cracked the mystery to some extent and recommends reduced food intake, avoiding high protein diet, healthy gut microbiome as important for longevity. Anti-ageing drugs like Rapamycin and antidiabetic drug Metformin could prolong youthful state, and senolytics can weed out senescent cells from the system.
Another exciting possibility is the merger of biological intelligence with artificial intelligence and creating an ‘immortal digital avatar’ of oneself that can be archived well beyond our organic existence: making us ‘cybernetic immortals’. This is unethical and outrageous, but there is already a brain-computer interface called ‘Neuralink’ that operates through chips implanted in brain and can connect with computing devices.
As these thoughts overwhelm my mind, a song played faintly in some offbeat corner of my psyche; the lyrical philosophy of Sahir Ludhianvi … “Jate huye kadamo se, Aate huye kadamo se, bhari rahegi rah-gujar; jo hum gaye toh kuchh nahi”; meaning the road shall always be bustling with people entering and exiting, and our individual existence and exit hardly matters. I think these lines best reflect the essence of gratitude for the life we’ve lived thus far, without worrying much about ageing and dying …
