Superannuated

 Superannuated

Ever since I turned 60, people have been curious to know when would I retire. Most of them were my ally and benefactors, so there was no easy way to say none of your business.
The 60 turned in to 65 and I was still working 9 am to 9 pm, going places like a buzzing fly. There was a heightened and enigmatic level of curiosity now about my quitting work. At 67, people were asking me on my face whether I intend to hang my boots at all.
Not that I did not want to leave full-time work. I was just waiting for the timing of my own. This moment finally arrived, and I superannuated as they call in office jargon.
Leaving work that I did not enjoy was easy. I am a lazy and un-ambitious person from the beginning and mostly reached where I did by drifting. This is God’s truth. I am happy when left alone and on my own devices.
This exactly was my plan; be my man, not do anything, not answer to anyone but myself, and learn to fall free with no one to catch me but my fate.
I began my retirement days by looking for God in small things. I walked longer than before, at odd times and odd places, at Joggers park at 8 am, or Carter road promenade at 4 pm, and at Race Course at 7 pm.
My wife and I expanded our 11 am coffee trail beyond Bandra, deriving vicarious pleasure in watching the world go by as we sip our coffee.
I enjoy doing small things that I had no time for before. Things like listening radio, humming tunes, making coffee, and reading read newspapers endlessly, with no one to rush me.
Taking a daytime nap unashamed is a novel experience. So is talking to myself, sitting across my bedroom window gazing at the Arabian Sea. I sneak through the St Anne’s church to have tea on Pali Hill, talk to children in our society building, walk across to Mehboob Studio for pan, and do countless such mundane and mindless things I had not done in 50 years.
I go to all those places where I never went; banks, post office, vegetable market, shoe repair shop, Adhar card office. My secretary and my wife had spoilt me silly by doing this backbreaking work for decades.
And after I am done, I sit down and think of life and limbs, and open a pint of Bira blonde and call up people who I have been avoiding all these years.
I hope curious people will get my drift now.
Ajai Kumar Gupta

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