1

Written By:
Dr.Sanat Triverdi

Written By
Dr.Sanat Trivedi
M.B.B.S. D.P.H.
B/15 pavan apartment
Nr. Judges Bunglow x road
Bodakdev
Ahmedabad

Third chapter of life

Old age is the last chapter of life. This is
the final part of the journey of life. Now
life is gradually moving towards its last
destination. Life's vehicle commences its
journey from the point of birth and ends
its journey at the final point of death.
This vehicle in the form of the body is an
old model, it has been used for long time
now and it has started losing its basic
potentiality for efficient functioning.
First chapter of the human life is
childhood. This is the period of growth
and development. Second chapter is
adulthood. Now all the organs and parts
of the body are fully grown and
developed. During this period the body
functions with its maximum potential.
The third and last chapter of the life is
old age, the period of descent and
degeneration. Now every day more cells
are dying than the number of new cells
generated. The physical body with all
its parts and organs is exhausted.
Various organs are gradually losing its
efficiency and ability to function at its
full potential. There is also loss of coordination between all the systems of

4
the body. With the result the body loses
its natural immunity and because of
that the body is more prone to various
diseases. It is also suffering from general
weakness and inefficiency.
Mental degeneration
Old age changes are not limited to only
physical body but it also affects the
brain. The process of degeneration as
well starts in the brain. And it affects
the functioning of the brain or mind.
Basic and main faculty of the mind is
maintaining and coordinating functions
of internal organs and various systems
of the body. Maintenance and
coordination of internal system is very
essential for survival and for having
healthy life. Mind is also responsible for
reacting to the external stimuli,
generated by environment. The mind
receives information of the external
world, through five sensory organs. And
mind reacts to that as per the need.
Four basic function of mind
There are basic four faculties of the
human mind. These faculties are
memory, intelligence, emotions and

5
creativity. These four functions are very
essential for progress and success in
life. With the help of these faculties, the
person is capable of organizing his
activities, can plan for the future and
can solve the problems of life. These
faculties are responsible for success in
life as well as for leading happy and
peaceful life.
Decision making is the main function of
the human life. One has to take
decisions at every step of life. Mind is
the decision maker. In old age all the
organs are affected including the mind.
So with the effect persons ability to take
right decision is affected. Either the
person is unable to take right decision
at right time, or he takes wrong
decision. Decision making is affected
because of lack of self confidence, and
fear of taking risk. He suffers from deep
rooted fear of taking wrong decisions.
Inability to take right decision at
right time, affects his progress in life.
Such a person likes to maintain his
present position, and is not willing to
make any change in the present
situation. With the result, he loses his
opportunities to make any progress in

6
the business, profession or any other
task. Such a person likes to live in his
own comfort zone. With the passage of
time this comfort zone becomes
narrower and narrower. I know one
person, who was very fond of traveling,
specifically trekking in the jungles and
mountains. He had gone for trekking in
the Himalaya region for nearly half
dozen times. He had reached up to the
height of 16000 feet. To-day he is afraid
of even going for easy trekking on small
hills or even traveling alone in the train.
Now he is afraid to move out of his own
comfort zone.
Fears
Because of loss of self confidence the
person in the old age suffers from
various hidden and subconscious fears.
There are many types of fears observed
in the old age. Some of the fears are
prominent in one group of people while
some other types of fears are more
prominent in the other groups of people.
Quality and range of the fears depend
upon the degree of degeneration, degree
of loss of confidence, quality of
conditioning and sense of
understanding of life.

7
Most common fear observed is the fear
of losing one's health. The person may
not be careful and conscious regarding
his health in his young age, but the
same person becomes highly conscious
regarding his health in the old age. This
is because he is aware that in old age he
is more prone to get various diseases.
He is afraid of getting heart attack, high
blood pressure, diabetes, weakness,
dementia and various joint pains. His
over consciousness regarding the
health, leads to repeated visits to the
doctors, repeated health check ups and
different types of laboratory
investigations. He desires to have total
health check ups to ensure that he is
not suffering from any disease.
The second fear is the fear of losing his
income. Money is essential for
maintaining a comfortable life. The
person is aware that his life will be
miserable without sufficient money.
Those who are having steady income
like pension, or fixed interest from the
savings, are less worried, but those who
are having no fixed income are always
worried about losing their income.
The third fear is the fear of meeting with
unexpected hazards in life. The old

8
person is always afraid of unforeseen
accidents. Most common fear is fear of
road accident. With the result he is even
afraid of crossing the road. The fear of
losing health and fear of accident is
mainly because of deep rooted fear of
becoming disabled or crippled.
I do remember that I was discussing the
same subject with one of my old friend.
When I inquired regarding his fear, he
replied that his main fear is the fear of
becoming bed ridden, and unable to
perform his regular activities. He added
that I dont like to be disabled because
then I have to take help of some other
person for passing urine or passing
stool. It shows that there is the fear of
becoming crippled and dependant for
routine activities of day to day life.

There is also fear of losing respect and

status in the society. The person has
worked hard for many years, to get
respect and status in the family and in
the society. He was a useful member of
the family and of the society. Now
suddenly he realizes that his importance
and usefulness for the society, is
gradually losing its ground. He realizes

9
that now he is not an active member of
the family.
In the young age his children were
asking his advice for all their activities.
In the second stage the children were
discussing their problems with him and
then were taking decisions. In third
stage he was just informed regarding the
problems and the decisions taken in the
family. And in the last stage he is not
even informed either regarding the
problems or regarding the decisions
taken.
Now he has become inert and ineffective
member of the family and of the society.
Now society does not need his services.
Once he was the main decision maker,
he was the earner and the protector of
the family. He was the main hero of the
life drama. Now he has to leave the
central position of the stage. His role is
now replaced by his son or daughter. He
knows that in this new situation,
whether he is present on the stage or
not, it will not make any major
difference to anyone.
The most common fear observed in the
old age is fear of losing the memory.
Memory loss is a natural phenomenon

10
in the old age. With the advancement of
the age people start losing their
memory. The degree of memory loss
varies from person to person. It may be
10% in some person, or it may be 90%
in some other person. Severe memory
loss leads to Alzheimers disease. The
person suffering from Alzheimers
disease forgets his own address, name of
his family members or even his own
identity.

Loneliness

Apart from various fears the old age

person is also suffering from the feeling
of loneliness. Aloneness is desirable,
because it is self created situation for
the sake of achieving some higher goal
in life. If one can enjoy life, staying

11
alone, it is desirable, but most of the
people are not accustomed to the
situation of loneliness. There are
number of families where the children
have either migrated to foreign land or
to another city, for the purpose of job or
profession. In some cases because of
incompatibility of nature, because of
ideological differences or because of
conflicts of ego the children are not
staying with the parents. In such cases
either the couple or the single person is
staying alone against his will. Even in
some families, where the children are
staying with the parents, the children
are so much busy with their job, or
business, that they have hardly any
time to spend with their parents.
Most of the time such lonely old people,
are spending their time watching T.V or
reading the news paper. The main
problem for them is how to pass the
time. So they go to the nearby garden,
sit there and chit-chat with other old
people. Constant feeling of loneliness
leads to diminished interest in life. It
may lead to mental depression or in
some extreme cases it may lead to
suicide.

12
Adamancy
With the advancement of the age it is
observed that adamancy dominates in
the mind. Conditioning is one of the
major characteristics of the human
mind. His past experiences are
responsible for various types of
conditioning of mind. Conditioning
affects persons thoughts, his principles,
his perception, his ideology and his
behaviors. Because of the conditioning
he is unable to adopt the changes in the
environment, changes in the
surroundings and changes in the society
culture. The best examples of
conditioning are the food habits. Most of
the time, we hear that the person always
likes the food prepared by his mother.
For him food prepared by his mother is
the best food. This is because from
childhood he is conditioned to take the
food prepared by his mother. So for him
it is the best food.
In old age because of this strong
conditioning, the person becomes more
adamant. He is unable to change his
ideas regarding the food, clothes, life
style, personal relationship, sex and
moral. With the effect he is unable to
adjust with new ideas and new life

13
styles. Specifically such person cannot
accept changes in the moral values of
the young generation. Such adamancy is
the main cause for the rift between old
and young generation.
Old people are also less flexible. They
can not change themselves with the
change in the culture, values and
change in the life style. With the effect
the person starts withdrawing himself
from the social life. Withdrawal from the
social life and surrounding, again leads
to loneliness. The person starts feeling
that now his life is meaningless. There is
no goal or motive in life. The only path
available for him is to live life without
any purpose. The resultant outcome is
to walk on the road of life without any
goal or without any interest.

14
Loss of interest

As there is no interest in the present life,

most of them spend their time,
remembering their past events. So
whenever they get chance they start
sharing with others regarding their past
way of life, their methods of living, their
ability for solving the problems, etc.
They share with their acquaintances
and family members that how they were
happy and enjoying life despite of less
comforts and luxury. They enjoy telling
others that how much struggle they
have faced in their childhood and how
much efforts they have put to get
success. All their past experiences and
events are treasure for them. Most of

15
them repeatedly open that treasure box,
show to others and get mental
satisfaction. But the old person forgets
that most of the time the listeners are
not interested in their talks.

16
Emotional changes

Because of degenerative process in the

brain, there can be change in the
emotional behavior in old age. Some
people become hypersensitive to the
events affecting their emotional
outcome. I have seen the person crying
loudly while watching some sad event on
T.V. channel. On the other side there
are people who become totally
indifferent. Happy or unhappy events
can not change their mood. They can
not enjoy social gathering or celebration.

17
At the same time sad event even in their
own family can not affect them.
All these emotional and mental changes
I have described are not seen in all the
people. Quality and severity of the
changes varies in different people with
different mind-sets. There are a group of
people, who are very active, and creative
in their old age. They have learned the
technique of enjoying life in old age.

18
Solution
There is no definite solution available for
the problems of old age. Old age mental
changes are inevitable. With effort one
can slow down the process, one can
delay the changes, but it is not possible
to totally prevent it. There are few
suggestions which can be helpful to face
the problems. There are two definite
outcomes of any problem, either the
problem can be solved, or one has to live
and adjust with the problem.
A] Enjoy the life
Now all your responsibilities towards the
family and towards the society, is over.
So try to enjoy life at its fullest. Try to
fulfill all your unmet desires. If you are
willing for enjoying the tours, arrange it.
Go to various places. See new places in
the world. Join some group and plan
your various trips.
B] Be flexible.
Try to adopt and adjust with modern
style of living. De-condition your mind
and then re-condition it. Forget your
past and adopt new style of living.

19
C] Be social:
Make good friends. It is not mandatory
that you should mix with the new
generation. Let them live their own life.
Choose your own friend circle having
similar thoughts, perceptions, and
attitude towards life. Company of like
minded people will give you sense of
happiness. Even there is no harm in
finding a new life partner.
D] Be creative:
Start learning some thing new. Sense of
learning a new subject will enhance
your self confidence and will give you a
purpose to live life. Try to adopt some
new hobby. Hobby can be music,
painting, photography, reading or
writing.
At the end I can say that it is up to you
to plan your third chapter. You have to
write your own script of third chapter.