Wednesday, September 19, 2007

GROW OLD GRACEFULLY

Many people terror about old age since ages. But is that really so horrible? Wise people can face it with least trouble and little pain. Never forget that every age has its own styles, infact old age has particularly its own. Old age is like an old song with its haunting melodies. If one leads a life of discipline, dedication, faith and service to his fellowmen, he grows the more chastened, charming and chiselled . In giving, one has the joy of getting, in helping, helped, giving hope, hopeful, loving others, loved, removing doubts of others, one feels free from his own doubts, in sharing the sorrows, one has a feeling of joy. So, the one who follows such a pattern of life need not fear of old age. It is a glorious time of one's life which is full of experience and wisdom. Here are some suggestions which are very useful which if followed carefully will help innumerable men to enjoy their old age and not be a burden to their families and friends.
1. THE VOYAGE OF LIFE: As we know, men have form different stages in his life - Childhood, Youth, Manhood and Old age. One of the difficult chapters in the act of living is to know how to grow old gracefully. Few men realize the process of aging and growing old until a sudden stress or a harder task is imposed upon them and then they disappointedly confess,'I am getting old'. The process of aging can't be measured by calendar years. Age is relative. Miss Olie A. Randall says, Old age is merely a stage of life in the sense that childhood and adoloscence are stages. We can know it by the French quotation, 'Forty is the old age of youth; fifty is the youth of old age'. Growing old is clearly repugnant to all. We can't stop the years from rolling on, nor can we keep back the gray hair and the wrinkles of weariness. These bodies of ours will grow old in spite of us. But there is no reason why our spirits should not be always youthful. The oldest people at home should be the youngest. Don't resent growing old, many are denied that privilege.
The rise of the average life expectancy in recent years has given rise to speculations as to the possibility of an unlimited prolongation of the life span. If science enables man to get an appreciable control on this fundamental principle of life, he may perhaps be enabled also to retard or ever banish old age from his life. What we can't help, we must been and it is in our interest to been it cheerfully. It is very pleasant and exhilarating to be young, but as the body can only be young once, the next best thing is to enjoy the privilege of growing old. Since we ust grow old, let us enjoy old age instead of suffering it and by the dignity and poise of our years, give an example and an incentive to those who are still struggling painfully up the ladder of life.
2. AGING GRACEFULLY NEEDS CARE: Prevention against disease is a decisive factor for increasing life expectancy. We must think of old age while we still young when care about our health will repay us the most and ensure us a long and healthy life. A regular way of life, with well-organized work, nutrition and rest, employment of vitamin therapy makes it possible to enhance age considerably. Many gerontologists agree that one of the surest ways to live long is to have parents who lived long. For practical purpose, it is better to put more of the responsibility for health and long life on ourselves than on our chromosomes, and admit that how we eat, drink, sleep, work and worry tends to affect our life span for good or bad. Psychologists and gerontologists have different ways of telling the age of each person: the Chronological age, which is determined by the number of years he has lived; the Biological age which is measured by how old a person feels and acts. Longevity is the work of a lifetime and there is no shortcut to it but moderation and temperance in everything. Proper diet, moderate, regular and balanced is the nearest thing to an elixir of youth. So, watch your intake of food. Psychiatrists recognize compulsive eating as one of the many possible outlets for frustration and anxiety. So, ward off compulsive eating.
The best general advice is that you should eat the habitual food in varied but modest proportions. Be aware that uncontrolled smoking can be a definite threat to your life and longevity. Aware as you are of the sexual appetite still much alive in you, the older you get the more attention you should pay to keeping the sexual appetite in trim. Undue sexual excitement will pop many an artery that would have lasted a long time under less stimulating stress. Remember do everything in moderation. As you are aging apply more the Chinese proverb, 'Make haste only when extracting your hand from the mouth of a tiger.'
3. ACHES AND PAINS: People while they are getting old age suffer from bore, loneliness, sadness, depression, loss of interest in living irritability and negative attitude toward others. They think that they may be old. But no one is really any older than he thinks or feels he is. The heaviest burden old people have to bear is that of loneliness, the seed condition from which sprout a host of other problems. In general loneliness, is a starvation of affection and the only way to cure it is to get for a wider social life by cultivating interests and genuine liking for other people. Don't look back except to gain knowledge, to recall the things that you have seen or done which give you pleasure and recall sweet memories. Don't torture yourself with unhappy recollection or as it sometimes towards those who are with us now. Bear your pains prayerfully because the restrictions of old age with its infirmities can only be properly justified and appreciated as a gradual transition from the natural man to the spiritual one, accept them bravely but also avail yourself of the best that care and medicine can do prevent, or postpone or moderate them.

4. ENJOYING CHILDREN AND OTHERS: Only love, tolerance, mutual understanding and communication will make it possible for elderly parents to keep together their children and enjoy their company. Allow the children to grow themselves but at the same time keep a close contact with them. But don't make an ass of yourself towards your children or young. Getting along with others and enjoying them is not much different from enjoying the companionship of children and relatives, it is an art-one that must be practiced and worked at constantly. Another important rule in the art of getting along well with others is tolerance in which many people fail. Don't keep harping on the small faults of others, particularly of those in your own family.

5. PLAN YOUR RETIREMENT: Millions will be retiring this year from active service or business work, and many will be unaware of the sad situation that their service is no longer required. When a person enters his retirement, his first inclination is apt to be one of loneliness and depression. Retirement is an imperative necessity of modern age. Your retirement is as important as your marriage, or your choice of career. It needs a reasonable planning to make sifnificant to do to challenge and satisfy him, he may be in for big troubles. Remember if you are retired from job you are not retired from life. Retirement as such is unavoidable but there are thousands of ways of alleviating the condition. Take time to think and plan carefully and you will make your retirement highly productive, the more earnestly you study your future prosepcts, the better judgement you will have in planning a well-ordered life. Make up your mind; know exactly what you want, if you want to make your retirement enjoybale. Plan your later years realistically and in detailed. Money is the biggest problem for a retired person, and no one can really after a solution. If you find difficult to make both ends met, learn to do without things. Have a plan to earn money, to save it and carefully spend it. Keep a standard of living your salary will allow. If your existing income from all sources comes to much less than your needs, you might go for a job or go into business. There are many specific jobs which offer opportunities for older people.
Hobbies may also be opportunities for earning a little money which in later years is always short. Don't look for quick results or easy success through hobbies or spare time jobs. Both are rare. The important thing is that you work well, if possible, with a difference. Common sense should be yours' guide; but remember don't out your money into any project unless you are absolutely certain you know what you are doing. The other critical question for older people is where to live. Generally aged people perefer to dwell in their own private living quarters. This is familiar ground. On the other hand, there are many who organize that the old home is not what it used to be. For happily married couples retirement can be a second honeymoon if it has been carefully considered and planned.

6. MAKE YOUR LATER YEARS COUNT: Old age scores the victory. Time is an ally of success. History provides many examples, in all fields of human activities, of persons who did start something new late in life and did successfully. Never be too late to begin again. Let's have an example, a sad-faced millionaire gave his statement to Dr.Walter Alvarez that he passed his sixtieth birthday. At that time, he came to know that he had done two things well. He had worked hard and made a lot of money. But as a husband and father and liver of life he had signally failed. He felt that he was a lonely, prematurely-aged old man who never had much fun or ever got any beauty or richness out of living. He wondered if it was too late now to start learning how to live. But it is never too late if each day you try to do your little bit, however small. Often an older person gets so careless of his person that even a stray dog will shun his company. Pay due respect to yourself. This means personal care, diet, dressing up on occassion and not apologizing for your age. Life is a system of social relations rather than of independent existence. Old age is dependence. They depend more on events and on others. If life forces you to depend upon others, don't let sensitivity keep you from seeking needed aid from your relatives, from society. Often they are just eager to help and have resources for this purpose. Talk frankly about problems and prospects of mutual concern and become master of yourself through understanding. Keep your independence through love. As you grow old, don't let sensitivity keep you from seeking needed aid from your relatives, from society. Often they are just eager to help and have resources for this purpose. Talk frankly about problems and prospects of mutual concern and become master of yourself through understanding, Keep from independence through love. As you grow old, don't become entrapped in old habits but think of old age as a second career which should offer new, refreshing interests and activities. No matter how small your task position may be, you play vital role in bettering the world. Keep in touch with old friends. If you are kind and good to the seniors, your days as well as their borrowed time will pass tranquilly and peacefully as the silver brook which winds its way through the flowery meadows. The deep seated yearning by people of every age is to be important to someone, to feel needed, to belong to a family or group, to have s sound mind and strong spiritual life to remain active and healthy. So, stand up for your rights. In many countries, there are movements to tap the responsibility, talent and experience of the growing number of people over sixty.
So, take part in these movements that publicize your requirements without infringing the rights of others. One of the greatest opportunities before you is to save your community that is to serve one another. It will easily keep busy the hands and hearts of all those who wish to belong to a family.
7. ASSETS OF LATER YEARS: People often seek of the beauties of old age but the only age that is beautiful is the tone that a person has been long preparing for by living a beautiful life. It is said that beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are the works of art. Old age should be beautiful, full of inner peace and a wisdom begotten of the years. Memories of youth, with its hopes and aspirations, failures and mistakes; memories of young love, as marriage, of parenthood; memories of disappointment and joy; all these are stored up in the mind to be pardoned over and tenderly laid away. So, make the later years rewarding. You know your limitations and should be in your limits. One good look at humanity will convince anyone that too many persons are not growing old gracefully.
For example, a woman in "war and Peace" by 'Leo Tolstoy', lost her son, fopllowed so quickly by that of her husband. She felt herself unexpectedly forgotten in this world - a being without aim or object. She ate, drink, slept, sat up but she did not live. Life left no impression upon her. She asked nothing from life except repose and repose she could find only in death. But till death should come she had to live, that is, employ all her vitality. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals. The mind must be kept busy and in exercise if you wish to keep it in working order. Don't stand apart. Look around, listen to, contemplate the beauty of nature, lose yourself in short meditations, and enjoy a good book. He is a spiritual mummy, mechanically becoming a relic of the past. General Douglas Mac Arthur in Dynamic Maturity wrote about a man as he is young as his faith, as old as his doubt; as young as his self-confidence, as old as his fear; as young as his hopes, as old as his despair. Mature old people are happy people with their families, above all happy with themselves. They are never even try to be themselves; they are just too busy in living and too happily. Everyone should have the will to live. Time, a precious thing, Smiles, so expensive, Appreciation, a quick thank you, a kind word, Understanding, a gentle, tender gift - These are really wonderful gifts you can't buy anywhere. They are simply a reflection of the spirit of God, his life in you. These are qualities of mind and heart which will enrich the passing years.
8. THE BEST IS YET TO BE: As Martin Buber said that to be old is a glorious thing when one has not unlearned what it means to begin. Our civilization is based on the belief in God and it would be quite impossible to avoid thinking of God. We have been brought up in his awareness and it will be a sad day if we miss it. Old age is not the termination of life after which nothing comes; it is rather the proving time for life eternal. Death is at once the most certain and the most uncertain event in human experience. We all know that it is bound to come for each other one of us one day, but we never know when and where it will be. Yet in the case of elderly it is of more immediate concern, it is at any accepting aging and dying as part of our natural life. Accept it in simplicity, live it with trust in God. Old age is a tremendous opportunity for drawing nearer to God, indeed that will be its main purpose.The second way is to accept old age with tranquilly and renunciation, therefore happily. The time of struggling is past, the game has been played, death's repose at hand.
Have the courage is give up. Probably, the reason Granny has lived so long was her calmness and ability to accept everything philosophically. This was especially true the time her grand daughter came rushing into the room. 'Grand ma, Grand ma!' the girl cried, 'Daddy's fallen off the roof.'
'I know, dear', she replied softly, 'I saw him pass the window. May he rest in God.' Here, we come to know and follow the principle 'Make your own philosophy of life'.
Old age has to be faced with mature and powerful deliberation. J. Maurus, who has a number of excellent books to his credit, gives many useful suggestions in this publication for growing old gracefully. He writes with understanding and insight and in a style which is easy and enjoyable.
The author takes the problems of old age with striking intelligence and constructive skill. J. Maurus' idea, through this book "Grow Old Gracefully", is to give helpful guidance to the people to grow old graciously is very gratifying and heart-warming.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Technology Development in India

I would like to say a few words on the development of Technology in India. As India is a well-developing country, a lot of changes are happening in our country. In that, one of the important changes is Technology Development. India is technologically developed upto some more extent. Of course, not only technologically, it's developing in many areas. Very far from these days, only some people could be in the position to know all the things what happened in our country. But now-a-days, very few people are in the position to don't know what's happening here. They may be counted in numbers. In those days, only Tata-Birla were the persons known by the people that too some extent whereas in these days, all know not only Tata-Birla, but Mittal, Premji, Ambani brothers also. And many people think about their success and life-style and try to follow them, want to reach that type of success. Want to be live like their life styles. Of course, that is not incorrect. As a maxim, "Try and try until we get success", like that if we try and work hard in that way, definitely, all the people will be in that same status, which is equal to them.
Once upon a time, Technology is so far from the people but it is developing, not developing mostly developed and reached all of us. Why I am saying like this because let's take the example cell phone. It was available to very few people when it came into existence. But now, it is available to all, even in rural areas, the connections are there and the farmer too do their agriculture through cell phones, know the new products, new technical methods by getting information by these phones. I don't mean to say here that this type of technologies should be for urban areas, not for rural, I mean to say that the technology is developing like this. These people don't know even the fundamentals to follow but the technology is made so like just how to use and operate is enough, knowing completely about one product is not necessary. Their deals are very fast.
The Internet connections are going in a much faster way. It reaches the people throughout the country. This type of fastly situations and processes made India technologically developed. The reservations, air-tickets, payment of Income tax, current-bills all are happening, without go out in heavy traffic, or in sunshine, or in rain, just sitting before the computer by a little click of mouse. Globalization makes the man completely faster and succeed in everything.
But, the Government has yet to follow many rules. It is very slower as the persons individually faster. The law and justice has yet to be faster. Because, it is too slow in giving judgements. The courts drag the cases and the Government should work fast. Then, the world is developing more and more. Only some people's hardwork is not sufficient for the development of technology. All should be participated in whatever they have the capacity and work for this country.
If everyone do like this, many new products which are technically and technologically help to this country and makes our country fully-developed. Then we can proudly say that India is a developed country.