“Its called Mid Life Crisis” I remember my lanky 6’2” cousin telling me some years ago - when I was much younger - when I asked him why he did not drive around the country side sightseeing and going places in his new car. I used to think I would have driven around a lot more and done things differently. Those were the days when I had barely touched the 30s and in my opinion I was a bundle of abundant energy and a real tough task master at work.

Nearly ten years have rolled by and although I hate to think I am old – more so since my 81 year old father is still busy in the forests of Indonesia clearing the dense vegetation to set up a coal mine- I can no longer deny the sense of lethargy that has crept into me or for that matter the inch of fat that has accumulated over what once used to be my rock hard abs. (Yeh Shah Rukh you had to see it to believe it). My dad on the other hand has harder abs even at this stage and manages a head-stand regularly each morning. Though I still frequent the gym and take my sons swimming, the biological slowing down, I know, has started.

I tend to sleep longer into Sunday mornings and I am not so particular about all those things as I once used to be. In fact, my wife mocks me often repeating the words I used to say years ago “24 hours in a day is not enough…..there is so much to do in a life time and so little time blah blah blah “. And if that is not bad enough, compared to the distance I clocked in the first three months with my new Santro 8 years ago, I have not managed to clock a third of it now despite having bought a new car recently. “Is it Mid Life Crisis?” I ask my self as those words echo so loudly in my head.

If there is more of one thing that I have been more tuned to in these last ten years than in the ten years preceding them, it is to news of deaths and sicknesses because I have seen a number of  deaths in the family due to old age. I guess the news of a 43 year old relative who died after prolonged dialysis and the story of a friend’s 14 year old son having been diagnosed with bone cancer have had an effect on my mind. Suddenly so unlike me I have found myself looking up the Internet to do a detailed comparative study on Medical Insurance Policies. Unfortunately there are not many web sites that give you enough reviews on the available Insurance Policies in India.

Mouthshut.com was one site that provided me with some info on Mediclaim and ICICI’s own health insurance. But there is not a great deal of information on there. Any more inputs made available at this stage, I think, will be well worth it not just only for me but also for other bloggers who may be entering a similar phase in their lives as well.

Eagerly waiting for the comments / inputs on this blog J Meanwhile my wife has that smirk and I can hear her say “The hare just turned into a tortoise”. Well all I can say to that is I will eventually win the race (I hope).

“Now the years are rolling by me ….they are rocking evenly

I am older than I once was and younger than I will be ..thats not unusual.”

                                                                     From a Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel  Album