Is asking Age...Sacrosanct?

Asking Age is Sacrosanct

Recently my dear Son and Wife went to my parents’ house for a month for the summer vacations. That meant, I would no longer be welcomed at my home with the sweet hug from my wife and Son… That means no free food or laundry.. That means everything by own… Do it yourself kiddo…

It was one long month. I kept thinking what should I do, this question used to hop around mainly during my Sundays…Sometimes catching up with old friends over phone was my option...(But My ears and tongue started painting… m talkative)… and how many Sundays… afterall it’s my family out… and not theirs.

Checking up Facebook… bored…. As looking at weird things on social networking sites and liking or commenting them was a bore thing to do….

All of sudden saw the old carton with a small carry bag carrying photos from my childhood(Yes I was a kid too)… greeting cards from my friends from school, college, festivals, trains…chat etc..

And I started spending marvelous time being in history and I loved it…

I found my age old Driving license.. Bearing my wrong age… and I recalled the number of times I shouted at the RTO office clerks for getting it wrong or right…

People are so very concern of their age (Male or female or both)… I learnt…

To reconfirm my assumptions or presumptions...let us drive down some 15 years back. This  was a noble family)of three, mother ,father and Daughter a kid) staying as our kind neighbor… exchanging  not only delicious baigan ka bharta(Eggplant stuffing) or chicken curry but also, kind smiles.. Those were the days when the mobile telephones were not at all common…(1997…) so people had enough time to come to each other’s home and talk face to face…this often used to create a much stronger bonding… a part of family …though not a family…(sukh Dukh ke sathi types) …

One fine evening… the daughter got a severe stomach ache..and with her father out on work …they had no one to take her to the hospital…and As a good neighbor…I accompanied Aunty and the kid to the nearest hospital….The doc admitted her.. her father was informed and as a very caring dad which he was,he too rushed to the hospital...The Girl  was admitted to the hospital and her mother sitting besides her caring her…

Seanwhile Since I was the male person who came with the patient… I was asked by the hospital administration to fill up a form… I patiently started filling up the form and after all the formalities, the father came to me and since he had to sign the same, he started going through all the details carefully….

WHAT IS THIS? He nearly screamed his lungs out? Showing me the form! I was awestruck…did I committed some sin or what ?Did I mentioned the name of the patient correct… (mostly people are quite concern about the spellings of the name…including me)I wrote in my best of the handwritings I could..

He pointed his fingers on the AGE of the patient column…where I put up age as 16…I could see all the seven colors of the  rainbow  on his face, with more prominence of red and yellow… This is what I thought Chhagol’s age is I said meekly…He said are you nuts? She is only 13 Grrrrrrrrrr……..I thought I took them to hospital and did what ever best I could… But my wrong input on age of the patient  created such a big Hungama in the hospital…no value of humanity....(Hehehe)

So people are really concerned about their own age/their spouse’s age/their daughter’s age I realized now.