A beautiful saturday in jersey city, walked across the snow maze on the street to reach a private firm on central avenue to file our taxes. As our appointment was 5 minutes away, myself and the hubby-dear sat down staring at the hustle and bustle of the tax payers in the office. Came in a mom with a 5 year old kid and rushed to meet her tax advisor. The kid sat down with an abacus, curious and lost in the world of colors. As i was noticing the kid's reactions to the colored beads, an old man walked across to the receptionist asking for his next client. I was awe struck and could not help but question myself if i were dreaming. I observed his every movement as he slowly walked around the office greeting the clients with a pleasant smile. Next came our turn and the receptionist guided us to a cabin. A medium build hispanic lady gently greeted us and looked into our papers. As our filing comprised of 3 different states in 1 year, she felt we needed to take the guidance from an expert and called in another senior advisor. To my surprise there walked in the same old man, with a humble smile he greeted us and asked us to follow him to his cabin. As we seated, my husband started explaining him our tax specs. After the conversation, he took in the required documents and slowly said i shall call you and fix another appointment in a week. He scribbled our information on his notepad as his fingers trembled in cold. We were about to leave and my husband expressed his anxiety in a mild manner about the deadlines. There came in the words which i shall remember for the rest of my life. The old man said "My name is Krishnakanth and i am 76 years old. I am in this industry since 49 years. I shall take care". He slowly confided in us that he was a maths teacher who glided into this profession, has been in US since 1980s. After we came home, i started frying some papads for lunch and my thoughts drifted back to him. How much zeal should a person have to work even at such an old age. The weather conditions have been pretty severe recently and it certainly takes some pain to reach the office and work at such an age. I was deeply impressed with his independent nature and zeal to be active. I believe its there in all of us, just the matter of realization and breaking the conventional walls of retirement. We need not work 8 to 5 every day all throughout our lives but certainly can keep ourselves active with any work we love at our own convenience. And i remembered the words of a wise corporate lady to whom i heard to recently "Do not retire before you have to".
Who cares what time it is , I am retired !!! Never say that.
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