There was a time when a man of sixty looked every inch of it – silver hair, sagging frame, and a face that told the story of ration queues, monsoon fevers and the price of kerosene.
Today’s sexagenarian, however, turns up at the airport in jeans and a smartwatch, returning from a yoga retreat in Bali. He looks more like his father’s grandson than son.
The age of hardship
The difference is not in the genes but in the times. Their fathers grew old because life demanded it. They had large families, small salaries, and no vitamins.
By forty, they were carrying the weight of four generations and it showed. Old age arrived not by calendar but by circumstance.
The comfort generation
Today’s sixty-year-olds, by contrast, have had a longer innings in comfort. They have been fortified by antibiotics, filtered water, multivitamins, and a lifetime of air-conditioning.
They jog in sneakers their fathers could never afford, sip green tea, and proudly display step counts. Hair colour and face creams do the rest.
Youth on a pension
Economically, too, the old have grown young. Retirement no longer means retreat; it is a second career in consultancy or golf.
They holiday abroad, stream Netflix, watch ‘What the Health’ and use phrases like ‘health span’ and ‘biohacking’ without irony. They do not withdraw from life – they subscribe to it.
The dignity of being dull
Their fathers were old because they had to be. Age meant gravitas, not adventure. One could not possibly dance at weddings or take selfies at sixty. Now, the grandchildren post pictures of grandpa doing Zumba and call him ‘cool’.
Vanity, the new vitality
Modern medicine may have added years to life, but modern vanity has added life to years. The new senior citizen will not fade away quietly. He moisturizes, he meditates, and if you dare call him old – he will block you on WhatsApp.
