The new-age ageing is all about ‘not’ ageing

A false demarcation separates young from old, even though it is only a relative or comparative term. It doesn’t help that this ageism starts from birth itself. Twenty-somethings are told to preserve their complexions, arm their skin against fine lines, to oil hair to insure against future balding, etc.

A smaller industry caters to retaining inner youthfulness. The wrinkles on your soul can be ironed out by deep breathing, meditation and all kinds of hi-fi spas, if only you’d part with a little money. So the glow can be from within as well as without. The latest BB/CC cream on face and candle-lit inner awakenings are touted to reverse all those birthdays.

In TV series The Young Pope, the pope played by actor Jude Law - despite being called young in the show’s title – wins over audiences by being his age before the camera, thus ensuring naturalness. Actor Linda Hamilton, 63, who worked out specially to play Sarah Connor in Terminator: Dark Fate, says: 'Obviously, the training is different as a woman of a certain age. I could work out just like I’d had for Judgment Day and not put on the muscle because you need hormones for that, and I don’t got them!'

So, new-age ageing is all about not ageing, about staying exactly where you are in time. But what about feeling comfy finally – to give up on what is expected from us and to be exactly who we are? The soul too needs to lounge around in its pajamas some day.

Ageing really is not reversible, nor should you want it to be. One prolongs health, which is a positive tendency at any age, but to be sexually attractive unto death is perhaps a tad too unnecessary.