Retirement Benefits.

Superannuation (or) retirement ensures some monetary benefits, encomia and a farewell party. The Star of the day feels sad as well as relieved. Sad: to start a new kind of life.  Relieved: from the hum drums of a long, mechanical life.

The euphoria of accomplishment lasts for a week. Then, one start’s the process of “coming down to earth”.

Here is how it happens:
Charity begins at home, which is the epicentre for this process.

The wife initiates the downgrading. As an office goer, the Retiree got first preference for news paper as well as breakfast. Priority over News paper remains untouched unlike that of breakfast.

The Retiree would not have felt belittled but for the way it was done. Wife says, “Can’t you wait for another 10 minutes; any how you are only at home?” First let me serve our son and daughter. They are getting late.

The Retiree wonders how in a week it is the son and daughter who are getting late. How was this being managed earlier!

Next, the son will come up and ask. “Pa, are you free?” with out waiting for a reply he will off load a list of things to be done. That list looks like a grocery bill of a five star hotel.

The Retiree feels hurt on being told indirectly that he is free and doing nothing. Thanks God that his son is yet to complete his studies. If the son is employed, it will feel like a double whammy.

In comes the daughter. She says, “Pa, I am in a hurry to finish this project; help with photocopying these references!” Daughter, you know, shows a little politeness. If she is an office goer the tone may have been different, who knows!!??

Don’t let out a sigh, there is still more to come in the way of the Retiree.

Months pass. Madame starts bossing over him on unfinished works. Yet, she goads him to take care of his health, which he has been neglecting that, under the pretext of important office work.

Requests increase from the son and daughter.  Slowly the daughter might start obliquely to refer to the Retiree’s free time (read you are idling)

Friends (who are yet to retire) also join, at this point of time to draw the attention of the Retiree, that he was enjoying life when they were still toiling.

Fellow Retirees form a different category. Morning walks or visit to parks would invariably centre on topics such as “That man is lucky, as he is happy in retirement”, “My family mistreats me and expect only the pension amount”, “my son and daughter emptied my bank account” or some such thing.

Back home, the treatment varies if the son is married and living with the Retiree. Now, two more hands join in the process bringing him down to earth more often.

This is how it goes:
Son gets the first chance and says, “Dad, will you switch off the TV now; your grandson (or grand daughter) has unfinished home work; help to finish it”

(or)

“Dad, will you let Varun (Vanitha) to watch cartoons now; you can see the re-telecast tomorrow morning” The Retiree wonders whether he will get the promised free time tomorrow!!

Not to be left out, the daughter in law also may give a helping hand.

“Dad, I will get you a cuppa (of hot steaming coffee), can you take these clothes to the launderer?” The pile of clothes needs a donkey to carry. The Retiree wonders whether he had become one!

Then, comes, the salvo from tiny tots. But you move up a level in the hierarchy of relationships.  “Grandpa, grandpa (affection & task is proportional to the repetitive title used) can you finish this simple sketch & colour it?”

The Retiree cannot understand this - if it is so simple why me to help? Then he understands that the sketch in mind needs the artistic talents of a Picasso (or) a Rembrandt.

The last straw on the camel’s back will be loaded by relatives. “In your free time, can you go to the Railway Station to pick up my daughter? I am little busy and she is coming with luggage”

Is he looking for a friendly but unpaid porter?” But the relative did not mind it and reminds the Retiree to be at the platform for so and so train & such and such time!

Not to be left alone, the general public also lends a hand. “Oh, old man, be careful on the road”. Auto wallah's, mobike wallah's, car wallah's, bus wallah's – for that matter any driver wallah will drive you mad by offering unsolicited advice.

What is the solace, then for a Retiree? There are some benefits like these.

• A Senior citizen’s tag.
• Concession on Rail Tickets.
• A separate cash counter, in the 1st week of the month, in some of the Nationalised Banks.
• Slightly higher interest rate on deposits (i.e. if the retirement benefit is still in his control).

I hear a murmur, from Madame Retirees. I leave it to one of you to narrate your story :)