RETIREMENT PLAN of SATYENDU SANYAL

We ,who know Satyen , is aware of the fact that he has remained immersed in literature since he was a boy. Over the years , his writing has also become quite readable.

I wanted to know what is retirement plan is . Read on .... his reply is here for you to enjoy :

"My dear Shyamal,

Apropos your queries on retirement blues and our not meeting for fourdecades etc.Came across a gem from Ogden Nash :

"Reflection on the Fallibility of Nemesis"
He who is ridden by a conscience
Worries about a lot of nonscience;
He without benefit of scruples
His fun and income soon quadruples.
-- Ogden Nash.

Unfortunately, having the benefit of scruples, my income has not quadrupled.As such, with retirement looming large, one does wonder ---- "dimly reckoning from traces of a distantly heard echo what my unfinished lifetime will still bring". ( Pasternak's words in the poems attached to hisDr.Zhivago ).

But at the same time, as an innate, if errant, believer in "Mangal-bodh",one hopes to muddle through somehow, somewhere.Does this strike you as a hopelessly unplanned state of affairs ?It is.But then...........

"Into this universe, why, not knowing /
Nor whence, nor whither, willy nilly flowing /
And out of it, as the wind along the waste /
I know not whither, willy nilly blowing //"

I'm sorry if this leaves you even more unclear and befuddled as to whatever you wanted to know.But that is how it stands at present.

All the best and take care.

Satyen.