In spite of all the advancements in science and technology, and relentless efforts by astrologers and palmists, man has not yet invented a scientific formula or honed an astrological skill to foretell when an earthquake is going to happen, or the exact moment when a person is going to breathe his or her last. The only phenomenon that can precisely be foretold about someone's ultimate fate is perhaps the moment when he or she is going to die if sentenced by a court of law to be hanged to death, and the day of retirement from public service.
I find a queer analogy between the date when a man is to be hanged to death and the date when an employee is to be retired. In both cases a man waits for the countdown to the day and prepares himself to accept the reality that is certainly going to happen. The experience of waiting for the day to be hanged cannot be felt by any human being except by the victim himself. But the man who knows the date of his retirement can at least feel how it is like to number the days remaining before he would retire.
Once retired, a man or a woman is deemed an old person by our society, where old age is a liability and youth an asset. After decades of achievement, an old man finds his knowledge and talent suddenly considered worthless.
There was a time when old people constituted a repository of knowledge and experience. Younger people would approach the elders to learn how to solve day-to-day crises. But now it is the elderly people who rather approach their computer savvy grandchildren to learn how to face an ordeal. The younger generation insists on 'learning from their mistakes' rather than on borrowing lessons from the experiences of their elders.
Actually, the problem with us who are queasy about uncertainty in retired life is our insatiable cravings and desires to get what we don't deserve. The trouble is we can't accept the reality of our declining power at our advanced age.
A retired life would have been exciting if we could take retirement as a gift from God. Those who in their active life practice humility and are dependent on God's blessings have this ability to derive pleasure from the wonders of life in retirement.
In the English language, 'to retire' also means 'to go to bed'. After working long hours when we come home late at night our eyes are already half-closed from weariness and we can't wait to retire and enjoy a goodnight's sleep. Had we not laboured all day long at our workplaces, we would not have enjoyed sleeping like a log all night long.
If our working career is construed as a long sunny day abuzz with excitement, our retirement should conjure up a long moonlit night, redolent of a floral fragrance to enjoy dreams.
But, that's easier said than done!
My mother used to say: "When a mango ripens, it begs gravity for a chance to fall to the ground. Similarly, I now beg the Almighty to take me to Him, away from this earth as no more can I bear the burden and pain of my old age."
Retirement, sleep and death are synonymous and constitute gateways towards fulfilment of life. Like sleep and death, retirement at the proper time is also a lucky thing, provided we know how to plan our retirement well in advance.
Being retired doesn't mean your life is over. Retirement rather is a beginning of a life where we can choose what we want to do. While we work all our life to earn a living, be well-placed in life, and secure our future, the post-retirement phase of our life provides us with that respite, when we can relive our life in the way we always wanted to live but somehow missed living it that way owing to our responsibilities and pressures.
We can easily design a fantastic retirement life free from financial stress, if only we develop a habit to set aside small savings every month to build our 'nest egg' to repose on in our retired life. We must not stow away tons of money to construct a gargantuan nest egg that, in order to be guarded, should buy us a headache in return. Financial institutions like banks and investment companies offer a plethora of schemes especially tailored for retirement.
We all know we have to save, but how much? How should we spend our savings and time in our retired life---in the ancestral home of the village, vacationing abroad, doting on grandchildren, unwinding with good novels, magazines and music, or devoted to religion and charity? It is easy to make a decision on how to spend money and how to live the day when you are in a job. But it is difficult to presage how one can defray future expenses and enjoy work-free life in his/her retirement lifestyle.
Planning for retirement is an important process in our lives and reaching retirement is a proud achievement. It is crucial you start to plan for retirement as soon as possible. The longer you leave it, the more you will need to contribute later towards your monthly savings, in order to achieve a comfortable income in retirement.
The quality of life you want in the future depends on what you contribute at present. It is important to evaluate your present financial situation and forecast your retirement picture. One may assume 70% to 80% of his/her pre-retirement income sufficient to maintain his/her standard of living. But many of us don't factor into our financial plans the cost of future inflation and additional expenses on account of concomitant increases in medical costs with our growing older, as we are loath to admit that our health during retirement will inevitably suffer a downturn.
It is human nature to exchange blows with the truth that tell us we have aged; instead of priding ourselves on our salt-and-pepper hair as a sign of maturity, we try to paper over the edges by dying our hair jet-black. We strive against predicaments by highlighting our pleasures and dim-lighting our pains in our quest for happiness in life.
Nevertheless, the word retirement starts in our mind, when we are yet to retire, a spiral of fantasies: serene days in the village home, performing Hajj in Mecca, travelling to North America, buying a brand new car, finishing the half-constructed house, rearing a milking cow, petting a pedigree dog, nursing a garden at the backyard, re-reading the books read ages ago, rediscovering neglected hobbies, taking much needed 'my time' and so on and so forth.
As a man finally enters his twilight years, he should settle down with something creative. If he is too weak to do anything laboriously creative, he should find some harmless hobby with which to fill his time. Indeed, time is then something to be "filled" and gotten over with, as the retiree whiles away his days on life's sidelines, his knowledge and abilities filed away in the attic of old age. He has now returned full circle to his childhood: once again he is a passive recipient in a world shaped and run by the initiative of others.
Life, I often muse, is like a train journey. December 10, 2009 is going to be the last working day in 32 years of my banking career. It seems I had started my train journey only the other day. Time seems to have passed by so quickly since my train's departure from the Kamalapur Railway Station in Dhaka on its way to the Chittagong Railway Station, my journey's final destination. As I now peer out the window of the cabin of my train, I can see my train is already snaking inside Chittagong city! It's now a matter of only a few minutes before I will have to disembark from so familiar an environment.
All of a sudden I have started realizing I am already in my twilight years---in the autumn of my life. I know the spring of my life has gone by. I know the lovely autumn of my life will also one day disappear, making space for the chilly winter to visit me. I know I have to make the winter of my life pleasant too, by accepting the wonder of long life, if I am granted one, as a special gift from Providence!
[Maswood Alam Khan is a banker. maswood@hotmail.com]