Uff! Grandad can really get on my nerves yaar! Why does he have to embarrass me in front of my friends? Tell him to stay away from me please! Our neighbor’s 17-year-old son was shouting on the top of his voice. A few minutes afterwards, he just stormed out of the house and went away. But he surely did leave a shattered old man sitting in the loneliness of his room, wiping the hot tears strolling down his cheeks. Sounds common Yeah, the tragedy is that nowadays this scene is common in almost every other house.

After an hour or so, I happened to witness the Grandad taking a quiet stroll in the garden in front of our colony. I was trying to imagine the thoughts that must be dwelling in the old heart, the pain that must have stabbed him a hundred times; and the words that must have died on the threshold of the cracked lips. A few minutes afterwards, I saw him sitting on a bench in the corner, having a look at his wrinkled hands. What was he thinking? Was he trying to view his future in the lines or was he just trying to peep into the past?

I could not hold myself any longer and five minutes afterwards, I was in the garden trying to pounce upon the first chance to talk to the old man. After many trials, I finally sat with him. At first, he tried to ignore me, but I guess the loneliness was just killing him from within. He turned to look at me and asked me – How old are you. My age was not a concern for him, I guess, but I answered him in a meek voice ‘ I am 26 years old grandad’.

‘Oh, so young! so what are you doing here? You should not be sitting with an old soul who can embarrass you at any moment? Go away and leave this old house alone! ‘ These words killed me over a hundred times. I couldn’t think of any suitable answer to this ironical question! My future was in front of me. Would my children also leave me like this? Is our older generation such a big burden for us?

I wanted to shout on the top of my voice and ask the society all these questions. But, whom to ask? Who is responsible? Can we shift this blame on any individual? I guess, no. Today, in the ever running fast lives, when every one of us is a part of the blind race; we are simply ignoring our responsibilities, our small moments of happiness, our peace and above all, our humanity! In that old person’s tears, I could sense many accusing questions, to which I didn’t have any answers. Why is it that when we were considered as responsibilities for our parents in our young age, our same parents become a liability for us in their old age? When we can take out several minutes in our day to sit in front of the television set, why can’t we take out even five minutes to sit with our parents?

Well, someone once said that young children are the future of any well-built society and the older generation is the building block of the same society. So, its high time that we start taking care of these building blocks, or the time is not far away when the society would just falter away!

So, the next time, you happen to misbehave with our granparents, remember the question ‘How old are you?’ and you would get your answers...