The incomparable Julie Andrews and the unforgettable ‘Sound Of Music’ gave us our favourite teenage film and an evergreen song of mirth &happiness ‘These Are A Few of My Favourite Things’ as Maria regales the children with her enchanting wish list of goodies. We all have nursed our favourites in colours, clothes, cakes, classic films, close friends (to name a few) and to the point of being obsessed with some of them. As we age with (misplaced?) maturity, a list of ‘unfavourites’ starts becoming longer.
To begin with, since we’ve just said goodbye to ‘2024’, the idea of celebrating the New Year’s Eve with friends that was once exciting, now sounds very scary what with the horrendous traffic snarls, road blocks, drunken drivers and crazy revellers taking over the city’s streets fromearly evening and throwing the normal citizen’s life out of gear. It took a friend visiting us in the afternoon of the NY Eve, full 90 Minutes to reach our home of just a 20 Mts drive !Call it ‘Seniors Syndrome’, now it’s safer staying home !
There’s an old saying ‘spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’ and in the autumn years the adage takes over our proclivities as the world rapidly adopts new ways. With on-line orderingtrending in urban families, fast food & ‘gourmet’ delights come to our doorsteps, we’re also reminded of our latest medical reports. So from burgers, pizzas and samosasseniorsmust take a regularbreak !We’re at a stage wheneven bending down to tie shoe laces is cumbersome, as ispulling on polo neck cardigans &climbing stairs that we’dearlier run up easily. Taking the lifts in the Metro station is coolwhile millennialcan climb stairs! Morning walks soundgreat but require more will power !
Loud music (remember Boney M tracks) &jiving to its beats was pure joy but today’s jarring pop &rap songs don’t inspire old legs to get up &dance !Also, old favourites in the 70s were likes of Neeti Ravindran or Geetanjali Iyer reading the English news -so suave, objectively non-partisan&never playing to the gallery! Today all the prime time news channels are look painfully lopsided, selective in reporting, the debates are slanging matches organised for sumo wrestlers called spokespersons.Toughest to take arefake stories swarming social media, the constant rants and divisive influencing in WhatsApp groups and with AI interventions seeping in, no holds seem to barred !
Are then no ‘favourites things’ left for us ?There will always be so many – from great artists’, poets’& writers’ works to classics of Bimal Roy & Benegal, Rafi’s retro songs, Zakir’s recitals to the highsfrom sports world there will never be a dearth.‘ A thing of beauty is a joy forever’ andtechnology and OTT has made it possible torevisit gems. Finally, two kinds of favourites make our day, our old friends & our little grandkids !
Working on Living 