At the ‘Pune Darwaza’ at Sinhgad Fort near Pune, with a stray doggie who decided he liked me.
The problem my friends, family, clients, and even strangers have started having with me is that I do not act my age.
I am expected to be the 50yo uncle slowly winding down towards retirement, which means looking at a slower pace of life (and of action, whether driving or even walking), less excitement (and excitability), more conservative behaviour (perhaps even more religious), less partying & late nights, looking after ailing relatives, focusing on insurance & other long-term investments, volunteering to sacrifice my personal life & needs for others, living vicariously through my children, doing more placid activities (indeed becoming more placid), limiting my sex life to ogling younger women and commenting on them vulgarly, cracking wife jokes, withdrawing from a hectic social life, and so on.
And I refuse to be that. Or indeed have any truck with their image of what I should be like at 50.
They try to guilt-trip me into confirming and to emotionally blackmail me into feeling ashamed of the life I am leading. And they are aghast and shocked that I do not yield and fit into the image they have built for me inside their minds.
Thus, I am facing tremendous resistance and outrage within my circle of trust & love. And I don’t know how to deal with it. For these people who claim that all they care for is my happiness (and they truly do, don’t get me wrong) seem not to see that I am indeed happy already!
