RETIREMENT BLUES

A few days back, I was privy to an informal chat between retired and soon to be retired administrators from bureaucracy and judiciary. I understand that retirement is always a bitter sweet moment- finally, you  have reached that stage in your life where you have achieved all that you could professionally and now you can simply retreat into your cocoon of simple pleasures; also, it is a moment of letting go of a number of privileges you have always held dear for the time has come to move away from the public arena. The Hindu scriptures christened this stage as vanaprastha- the period of life when one retreats into the forests. In modern terminology, its all about going into the wilderness, getting away from the humdrum of daily existence and soothing one’s nerves that have been frayed by the daily pressures of living and life. Of course, one never goes into the forests these days( there are none anyways and if you really have to go, you need to book into a resort) to spend the days of retirement because one just does not retire. Many retired persons find exciting avenues of engaging themselves and actually manage to have a blast in the post retirement phase. Many more prefer a life of quietude in the midst of family and friends. To each his own, basically.

Therefore, I was curious as to what some senior administrators had in mind regarding retirement. My last engagement with a retired person was with my father who had caustically flung away all our worries regarding his post retirement life and our suggestions to engage in some ‘meaningful’ work with the retort that he was retired, not dead and that he would not be bossed over by anybody now, he was a free spirit and he would enjoy life the way he always wanted to but couldn't in all these years. Coming back to that discussion, in a nutshell, I found that the  seniors were haranguing about not getting deluxe rooms in state guest houses or that due courtesies were not extended to them in the public for a post retirement. The best judicial officers and administrators of the time were actually pitching in their brains to devise ways and means to wring  a whole lot of post retirement sops from the government. The idea was that they had given their lives to their respective jobs in the government; now it was payback time.

As I said, to each his own. But still, that doesn't stop me from thinking that this constant clamour for attention, for privileges, more so, when one is retired and comfortably pensioned off, is a tad vulgar. I understand and do agree that we, government servants, give a lot to our jobs sacrificing little pleasures of life. But that is a choice we made early on and we didn't choose to change our choices for reasons best known to us. Though not completely or in full measure, but  still in a big way, the government provides for us to make our lives comfortable. We, the officers in senior ranks, enjoy privileges of housing, vehicles, provident funds etc  all of which are objects of envy of our counterparts in the private sector. I am not comparing the two and not even trying to point out that everything is hunky dory with our job structures and compensation policies. Having said that, I do feel that we are reasonably well taken care of for all the personal sacrifices and efforts we make in our professional spheres to keep the government machinery rolling. And maybe, that is precisely the reason why retired persons screeching for the same perks they enjoyed while being in the service seems to be in a bad taste. As one of my seniors put it beautifully, we need to learn to let go. Yes, we need to learn to let go, to wave that final goodbye and gracefully retire without stirring up a huge fuss.I am sure life is much more beautiful than wasting it pestering over silly privileges of a government vehicle or accommodation in some dak bungalow. What bugged me during that chat was that just nobody was talking about how they wished to utilize their years of experience in the service for some greater or social good. For our retired personnel can be veritable think tanks and their knowledge honed by age and experience can be invaluable in a lot of spheres. It would be a wonderful   if such pettifogging could be dispensed with for we, the youngsters, are keenly watching these super seniors for direction and purpose. They may fade away from the professional arena, but the light left behind lingers. And, they nor we would want a gust of petty, silly wind to blow it all away.