Six decades of existence

Born in early 60s, I have very faint and obscured memories of early childhood. I very vaguely remember the war of 1965, when we used to have blackouts and were expected to hide under the table should there be bombardment. I also remember being unwilling to go to my first school and my shift to Central School, where I had to repeat class 1.

70s were growing up years. I remember shortage of supplies and eventual imposition of emergency. The elections of 1977 and euphoria around Janta party are very well etched in my memory. In fact, that was my initiation into politics as we used to animatedly discuss the likelihood of Congress’s a debacle, a new thing for this nation. The decade also marked the end of my schooling.

80s marked my evolution from being a student to a professional, a child to an adult and a dependent into independent. It was action packed decade highlighted by success in becoming Probationary officer in State Bank, my marriage and fatherhood.

90s saw my transition from public sector to private sector and hard work to achieve my aspirations. It was a decade of mixed feelings – disappointment, disenchantment, regret interspersed with happy phases.

And then there was start of the new century. The first decade of the 21st century was perhaps the best, highlighted by professional excellence, career progression, asset acquisition, financial gains and was in a way sort of the peak phase.

In a sense the second decade of the new century was continuation of the journey of the previous decade, with more material gains, marriage of my daughter, birth of my grandsons and attempt to make future more secured.

And now the third decade of the century is the one during which I complete my six decades of existence. I retire professionally after superannuating next month. It’s an important milestone of this journey called life!

Next decade will mark the next inning and I don’t want to slow down but to continue with the same zeal as the previous decades.

I don’t think that there’s anything unique or exclusive about my journey so far and the aspirations that I hold for the next innings. I think it’s same for the most of us, but the need is to come out of the rut and try and leave some imprint on this world. Let’s see how it spans out.