Life can be more enjoyable and may have a deeper meaning if we just manage our time and utilize our resources properly. For an average middle class man life comes to an end the moment he retires. He thinks the busy days are over and the period of leisure has set in. But he is grossly mistaken, specially if he is still fit, mentally and physically.
Retirement is a technical word to mean the end of the routine job you have been doing since long. It, however, does not mean to be lazy or inactive. Life may continue to be active and meaningful even after retirement.
Most middle classmen become free of routine responsibilities of parenting by the time they retire. They have a house and pension to live on and their children are married and settled. This gives them abundance of time to serve the larger society they are living in.
Our developing societies have a lot many problems which government agencies alone are either unable to solve or they neglect their duties. Retired middle class men can step in here and become the conscience keeper of the society.
Take the case of a retired teacher, for example. He is healthy and alert and can contribute to the wellbeing of the society. He has the option to pass his time with his grand children. But a better and more meaningful option would be to get busy with disadvantaged children struggling to join the race of life. His teaching experience can help them in a varieties of ways as he could be their tutor, counselor and guide.
Relatively well off middle class men can do even better. They can launch NGOs, join welfare associations and take up common causes to serve the public at large. Our system of governance is plagued with corruption and inefficiency and the country is facing problems of all kinds. Retired but healthy middle class men can help the country in overcoming many obstacles and provide leadership to the civil society of which they are proud members. There are men engaged in numerous projects that they have launched to clean the environment we are breathing in. There are also people who are rendering selfless services to the disadvantaged and the marginalized. And there are many areas where neither any government agency nor any NGO or private organization is active to attend and solve people’s problems. Retired people can find works here to keep themselves busy and continue being useful to the society.
The Muslim community in India has a tiny middle class. Historically speaking, they took to modern education quite late which delayed the emergence of a Muslim middle class. Then happened the Partition in 1947 whose shock waves were felt well upto 1960 and beyond causing the flight of the Muslim middle class to Pakistan, England and other places. The loss to the Muslim community can just be imagined.
A new Muslim middle class, though small in size, has emerged recently. In fact, the ones who braved to be in schools and colleges even in the depression period of 1950s and 1960s have either retired today or are on the verge of retirement. There is no denying the fact that this middle class is not very rich nor many of them have the satisfaction of their children being happily married and settled. In fact, a good number has problems at personal or family levels to solve which keep them preoccupied. Thus we can imagine that only a small minority of the tiny Muslim middle class is truly in a position to help their community as well as the country.
Social service is a daunting task, specially if one has to work among the uneducated or semi-educated poor whose level of awareness is pathetically low. This scares many middle class men who prefer to remain idle and lead a boring retired life. These are the men who need to be impressed upon that being in the thick of affairs would not only keep them healthy but would also provide them with opportunities to enjoy life in a better way, even make their retirement more meaningful and beneficial to the society.
[May, 2010]
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