DailyPost 2650
RETIRED LIFE – TRANSITIONING INTO…
What rings in a working person’s or any adult mind when we talk of an adult person, we are not going to fathom out today? Nonetheless, it is nothing very inspiring, of utility to look forward to interacting with such a person for learning the rope tricks of life. There is not denying the fact that everyone is forced to learn the rope tricks the hard way, and lots are unsuccessful at that. First the chronology, when you gain some level of maturity between 10-12 years you start thinking of a profession, vocation, expertise all ending up in job mostly.
In the normal course of things, you end up achieving it, say anything between 22-25 years of age. From the day you join whatever job, you broadly know, what you will end up with, in both the best- and worst-case scenarios and at what age. Most of the times we even know date and month. What we are generally focusing here is the whole lot of professionals who retire from the highest positions in the government and related jobs. It is precisely this group, which experiences the worst of retirement blues. Suffice to say, it was known to the concerned person from day one.
How did you afford to miss out on planning for the last twenty-five years of your life? All this is happening to the same person had done such a neat job in his teens and a bit later, to make the best out of his life. Might be the power and glamour made a such a rational person believe that it would last forever, while knowing the harsh realities through and through and seeing it all around. If still it does not hit the “illuminated functionary,” there is something seriously wrong with bureaucratic upbringing. The trappings of power become more important than cut and dry rational thinking. Besides that, if you ever thought that pension and financial comfort can create a purpose for quarter of a century, the last quarter of your life, then that life comes like a bolt from the blue, leaving you with no steps to retrace.
Purpose and fulfilment in life are not buttons that can be switched on and off at will. Without being of some utility to the world, it is not bothered about anybody. When you had to give serious thought to make a strategy to extract the best out of your life till the last day of your existence, you kept battling to hang to the trappings of power and how to extent it beyond your superannuation. A post retirement government is sought after to prolong the nemesis a little further. A little more time for planning as to how to keep the government’s supply chain prolonged till the last day of your life. With the nature of academic brilliance, expertise, exposure and experience at your command, you can plan a journey of professional life more satisfying and fulfilling than first one. You are what you make out of yourself and that is more than true for your second avatar. For sure, from distinguished to extinguished cannot be your journey.
TRANSITIONING TO A PRODUCTIVE AND PROFESSIONAL RETIRED LIFE, ONLY A VERY FEW ARE ABLE TO MANAGE.
Sanjay Sahay