Cycle of life

I recently visited my nephew, Neel, on his birthday. For a one year old kid, he’s a handful for anyone. He walks runs and climbs stairs. He talks too, but we don’t have a clue as to what he’s saying. He smiles with all joy and naughtiness at the same time. He cries for he’s hungry or sleepy. Ah, now that's a valid reason. I guess with time he would cry for no reason at all…we call that as “makkala regale” in Kannada. My brother and sister in-law have definitely mentioned of his untimely cries and mischievous pranks, but never have they been irritated by that or complained about it.

From all these I observe one thing – the cycle of life. Don’t get me wrong and stereotype me as a mechanical engineer who is obsessed with cycles or can readily draw parallels to any thermodynamic cycle.

What am trying to say is this. Children are very similar to old people. Both have wide staring eyes. It’s known that the eyes remain the same size from the day you are born to the day you die. A child’s face is small and the eyes appear to be large and beautiful. The old people’s face is small too – due to senility, and their eyes appear large. Have you looked into the eyes of your grandparents? There’s happiness in them coz they can see you; at the same time there’s sadness as they know you are leaving them, and the only way of communication is through a phone.

The child’s legs are developing and are bow shaped. It’s funny to see them walk and run with their bodies swaying from left to right and right to left. Coming to the old people, their legs are bow shaped too, but for other reasons. Their walk is similar to a baby’s (toddler’s) walk.

Children, when they smile, appear so beautiful. Their toothless smile is priceless. The parents or their friends would spend ample time, making stupid faces and sounds, just to get that priceless smile. As one grows old and looses all the teeth, he or she is left with the same toothless smile (priceless or not…not sure). There are exceptions; what if one avoids this by having dentures!! In that case ask them to remove the dentures and smile for you…believe me it’s worth it.

Well, the point is that old people and children are very similar. Both are attention seekers, both want to be loved (everyone wants to be loved), want to be taken care of…No matter how much the older community refute, they are dependent on the younger generation. We love you all!!

This is what I meant when I said cycle of life. Start and end with a more or less same physical state, although with a lot of give and take in between!!