Fountain of Youth

I've always believed that

'Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind , it doesn't
matter'.

Age , like beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the mind of the person.
Age is not related to time in the strictest sense just as beauty is not
related to symmetry (in the strictest sense).



Just a month ago ,we were loading propane and butane in Bandar Imam
Khomeini, in Iran. The port of BIK is deep inside , at the end of river
Mashrar .The entry to this river is very tricky and it requires intimate
knowledge of the tidal variations and its general geography .(bathymetry to
be precise)

Pilots , in the maritime sense are specialists who can pilot the vessel
safely through these tricky places. They are locals and ex-masters who have
thorough knowledge of local weather patterns and conditions and are
rigorously tested at a regular basis.



After an uneventful loading we set out to Fujairah to receive bunkers and
then head towards the discharge port.

During the outer pilotage ,I was on watch .

The river passage is a long one , taking up to five hours. So after the
un-berthing stations I wore my uniform and rushed up to the Navigating
Bridge to keep my watch.

The pilot , I noticed was very old. Classic silver haired mane , an Iranian
hawk like nose, a stooping back and an unflappable air of dignity around
him.



During pilotage , the Navigating Officer's main duty is to provide a link
between the Master and the Pilot and the Helmsman and track and monitor the
vessel and see that overall safety is not compromised.



Now , the pilot wanted to speak to me."Cadet ! " He tried to call me.

I corrected him that I was the third mate and not the cadet. But since he
had a feeble and grated voice as a result of years of smoking , I leaned in
towards him to hear him better.

With a flash of affection in his face , he stroked my chin !

Taken aback by his untoward gesture , I jerked back.

The awkwardness that had transpired in between us was over in moment and
the pilot regained his composure, (and I regained mine) and then with great
effort and a louder voice started talking to me. First he asked me my age,
then my experience as a navigating officer.I replied that I was 24. And this
was my second ship as a third mate, but I had done six ships so far .

Then , as is if he was talking to his grandchild , he started to
patronizingly advise me about the dangers of going to Somalia or the risks
of bedding loose women in different ports !

Hah !



Old Age was never a man's problem. Amitabh Bacchan got voted the sexiest
Indian superstar alive well in his sixties. Wrinkles may make a women old,
but on a man's face they add character. Women drool over the salt pepper
look of grey and black hair. Hey !, Hugh Hefner has five girlfriends at
eighty !



But what about being too young ?

Ah ! Now there's a problem.

Young age is a bane to all men. It declares to the world their immaturity &
inexperience.

Young age is Pure kryptonite to any young superman's psyche !



"How old are you ?" is the first question every port official asks me,
perhaps wondering if I'm ready to handle the enormous responsibilities of
being a navigating officer of a ship. After all the responsibility of the
ship staff's lives and their safety is placed on the third officer (at least
during his watch)



It's the combination of my ever breaking out skin and a rail thin body that
further enhances the illusion of youthful immaturity.

I know how to tackle this situation too. I comb my hair differently. Its
slicked all the way back ,like the hair of an Italian mobster. My ugly mug
sports constant 5'o'clock shadow.(which takes 2 days to grow !), and maybe
I'll take up smoking , so that my voice gets hoary and I can add a few
wrinkles on my face.

Hah ! Even I'm not that stupid enough to start smoking !



But I'm lucky.

My looks go after my dad's.

I'm going to age normally, unlike my mom !

My mom does not look 46.(ok ok . she is 47)

She is often mistaken for my elder sister.(who does not exist)



Mom is ageless. When she tells people she has a son, they assume he's still
at school. But disbelief hits hard when she reveals that her son is 24 years
old and a seasoned (salted?) sailor.

For comic effect , she makes me stand beside her when she is introducing me
to others.



Picture this.

I'm 5'9'' tall.

She's 5'2'' tall.



The sheer ridiculousness of the striking visual contrast of sizes makes jaws
drop and sputter inanities.



I recently met someone else who's ageless. Her problem is that she looks so
young that people don't realize that she's a surgeon...people don't treat
her with the seriousness that is usually reserved for a surgeon.(I must
admit that even I don't !)

Of course , I realized that she was indeed a rare find.

She too has somehow managed to tap into the fountain of eternal youth in
these days of global warming and pollution and inflated stress.

So , I hatched a plan to make her meet my mom. I just wanted to see the
chemistry between two people who are so similar yet so widely different.

Once they met , they hit it off exceedingly well. It was because although
they are very different , they share many common traits , which I believe is
their secret to agelessness.

Their secrets are (I think) :

A strict diet of healthy food.(both are vegetarians and very picky about the
food they eat),religious adherence to a personalized exercise routine, a
zest for life, an extremely positive outlook , strong sense of identity and
future goals, a large and varied social circle and the ability to find
happiness within oneself.



I know my mom's other secret.

She is afraid to die. Apart from bats it's the only other fear she has.

So she lives every day like she never has lived before. So absorbed in what
she does that nothing else matters... that nothing else exists.





So let this be a reminder to all you pill poppers, wrinkle
skin-cream users ,all you Botox addicts, chemical peelers and collagen and
silicone implanters: Age is not real. Your body doesn't get corrupted by
Time. It gets corrupted by cell division error and free radicals. In the
same manner, your mind/soul doesn't age. It gets corrupted with 'intellect',
'philosophies', and 'education'. As we know, cell division error, aided by
free radicals, accumulates errors throughout the body as time passes. A
person of 80 obviously has more errors than that of 40. His tissues start to
fail, making his organs fail, then entire organ systems collapse, until life
is snuffed out.



Remember this inevitability. We all begin to die from the moment we are
born. Some do it faster than others. All we can do is enjoy our lives.



And I've always believed that 'Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you
don't mind , it doesn't matter'.

And I don't mind at all !


Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless;
Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:27 UTC
Message-id: 397344450