Growing Old

The other day I went to a boutique. The owner was busy with another client and I hung around. The client was a rather well kept lady, perhaps my age or may be a tad older who was having her measurements taken for a blouse. Her teenage daughter hung around chatting on her phone. Once done she joined her mother.

The store owner, while measuring her, remarked that she seemed to have lost weight.

Immediately her daughter exclaimed, "Lost? She has put on SO much weight" a smile playing on her lips.

Oh for the arrogance of youth!

My first thought was "Been there, done that."

Second thought, "I am in the cycle of 'receiving' karmon ka phal." My own 11 year old is quick to pass such comments regardless of location or circumstance. At first I didn't know if I should curb her enthusiasm or ignore it as a phase. But instinctively I always do the latter.

Third thought, "She (the daughter) has a big butt too. Is she going to remain this thin forever???"

We have all been through it - the joy of being young that overshadows the reality of a seemingly distant future - we didn't think we'd grow old...or at least be confronted with our increasing age or girth by our own.

But as I sometimes squint to read the instructions on a strip of tablets in itsy-bitsy font, or experience a jabbing pain in my knee after I've overdone the running bit on the treadmill, the reality of it sinks in faster. 

I don't have a problem growing old at all. If any thing, I am quite happy to be progressing slowly to an age where perhaps I have a little more wisdom (gained out of making numerous mistakes) and a lot more patience with life, circumstances, people and myself.

But this incident also made me realise that I was becoming cynical and disparaging in my thought process (Thought three? That was just contemptuous!)

 Don't know if this is another sign of growing older, but I do know that this attitude needs to go. Now.