Settling Down

The talk turned to where should one settle down after retirement. Nowadays, whenever we were among our friends the talk almost inevitably turned to this question of settling down. Old people in mid-fifties, we were approaching the age of retirement from our jobs, the oldest among us is due to retire in two years my turn would come in five years. Children had grown up and were either already set in their respective jobs or would be settled by the time of our respective retirements. We are a tight bunch of four friends who came to the city from smaller towns many a year ago and through incidents now no longer well remembered, became friends. Our friendship survived our marriages primarily perhaps due to the bonds that our wives could build among themselves. I think the sense of insecurity of a small Towner that runs through in our subconscious is responsible for the kinship that we feel for each other.

By the inevitable rule of natural progression we had moved from one room tenement to owning either a house or a flat, thus the second of the three middle classes dream, that of owning a roof above your head, had been fulfilled. It is, perhaps a rule of natural progression in the life of a working class person that he first leaves his home in search of a job or in the chase of a dream, lands up in a different town or city, some times, even different country, marries, breeds children, builds a house and settles down, away from his place of birth, from his land of childhood memories and adolescent’s dream. All of us have travelled and completed landmarks of this progression. Thus, by conventional definition we are settled for spending a retired life in this very city. And yet, I find we are discussing among ourselves more and more about where to settle after retirement. What is it that still makes us feel that perhaps we are still not welcome in this city?