SEVEN AGES OF MAN

A time was there not so long ago,when I was not so old as I am now and not so young either when I used to think that I was very fit and strong.I thought I could work "n" number of hours without sleep or rest.I could do whatever physical and mental work that my job required.In short I could handle any situation but alas! my confidence has taken a dent in recent years as one after another of my vital organs have started to malfunction requiring corrective procedures for maintainence.First my eyes when I had an Acute Retinal Detachment, for which I had to have surgery in Chennai.Next was the turn of my Heart to develop an Acute Myocardial Infarction for which I had to undergo LIMA-RIMA Triple Coronay Arterial Bypass Graft Surgery after which I am alive to write this blog.Now the doctors tell me that due to my Retinal Laser Surgery, I have developed dense cataract of the same eye for which I must be operated pretty soon.
Well this reminds me of the famous lines from my Guru,William Shakespeare whose birthplace at Stratford on Avon, I had the extreme good fortune to visit last year.The lines are as follows:-
" All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.At first the infant,
Muking and puking in the nurse's arms;
Then the whining school boy,with satchel
And shining morning face,creeping like snail
Unwilling to school.And then the lover,
Sighing like funace,with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow.Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths,and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour,sudden asand quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth.And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
Wth spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose,well sav'd,a world too wide
Fo his shrunk shank;and his manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble,pipes
And whistles in his sound.Last scene o all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sansteeth,sans eyes,sans taste sansevery thing"
I was pondering in which stage I exactly fit in-not fully sixth since my voice is as before but my shanks have really shrunk and the part about my youthful trousers do appear too commodious fo me.
Whatever may be it,my sincerest hope and prayer to my Maker is that my history may kindly be finished before reaching the seventh stage-sanseyes,teeth,everything!!