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When I was reading the newspaper the other day, it was carrying an article about the ‘the great down ageing syndrome’. It is all about how people in their middle age years are turning to youthful looks and they are doing everything possible to keep up with the changing times.

I can remember how one of the ad campaigns some years back was probably the genesis of such a thought for Indian viewers, where the lady promoting the bathroom soap was so beautiful, that the guy took her to be a dream girl, but he was surprised when he saw her daughter calling out to her from behind. A seed was sown in the viewer’s mind that they can also look as young despite maturing in years. Probably an innocent attempt to sell the product to the customer, but this idea has gained ground not just on television but has now become a reality.

The article said how a 53 year old industrialist is associated with beer, fast cars, marathon yacht parties and dazzling women. Yes, Vijay Mallya it says has become ‘the most striking manifestation of a new behavioural paradigm that’s playing out across large swathes of Indian society — The Great Down-aging Syndrome.’ The Indian avatar of Richard Branson has a persona to represent this life changing syndrome.

Not only has this changed the way people look but has made them to view ‘age’ as just a number! This attitude is at the centre of many such subtle changes that are visible today. Just imagine how a man in his 40’s continues to remain a box office hit, when he drastically changes his physique and comes up with a picture perfect body for his latest hit, in the form of Ghajini.

Middle aged people are increasingly doing things which some years ago would have become a joke among the community. Even the writer of the article is surprised how fast things have changed and things are changing even as we talk about it.

An adman puts this perfectly when he says that ‘Demographics are clearly influencing psychographics’. Yes, there used to be the good old days, when the older generation clearly defined their looks and features based on their values, principles and experiences of life. But that has turned on its head, when today’s generations thinks that if you change things on the outside, they can modify the inner man to match the changes that they have made on the outside.

But that’s not all, one media man reports that it could be because of the changing social equations. Yes, the young are dictating the terms on what to wear and how to look, even to their parents? And the old are more than happy to comply, just to remain in sync with the changing generation, while others might be just trying catch up on things which they never got in their teenage years. It’s clearly the changing balance in the parent-child equation, where today the child is in the driving seat and dictates the rules of the game. Earlier the parent decided what was best for the kid, but today they say that the child has become the enforcer when it comes to crucial decisions in the house, whether it is about which school to go or which car to buy, everything needs to have the approval of the kids!

All in all , a win-win situation for the parent and child, and yes the marketing guys are laughing their way to the bank as they see an increasing opportunity to sell vanity products and much broader base of customers. From, social networking sites to jeans and t-shirts to latest gadgets to adventure sports everything is selling. What an age defying act?

But can you really defy the truth and for how long, I was pondering. I was remembered of how one day I was watching the superstar of Indian cinema, Amitabh Bachhan on TV, truly in awe of the man’s ability to out stage every other actor in the industry to bag all major ad campaigns, Reid and Taylor to Cadbury’s, the man was doing great. But I was shaken to see him with a cap on his head and being led on a stretcher to the hospital a few days after that. He was taken ill and he looked so helpless before the realities of life. Real life had finally taken over reel life.

Are we in many areas of our lives still living out a reel life and just waiting for the real life to take over. Are demographics dictating the psychographics? We need to look hard at the signs that nature gives and not shrug it away as just another number or phase. So many of us learnt the most enduring lessons from our white bearded grandpa or the wrinkle faced grandma, for them those signs were always to be better prepared for the day when they would say good bye to life . What mattered was that they ran the race of life well. For in the Bible it is said ‘Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment’. If we know that we have to responsibly spend our life and be subject to the ultimate judgment then age will never be merely a number. Probably there also lies the reason to the changing parent-child equation. Parent has lost his moral standing, and his worldly wisdom and knowledge are not good enough to defeat the thoughts and ideas of the internet generation. The problem is not in looking young but the reason behind it. A survey says that ‘nearly 41% of urban Indians in the age group of 41-to-50 think ‘it’s important to be attractive to the opposite sex’. In comparison, the only group to rank higher is the 15-to-19-year-old, where 42% of respondents share that feeling.’ The intention or motive behind most of the changes is what I doubt and not the fact that a person is trying to just look good. If the morals are not eroded nobody would mind a Vijay Mallya like father, but is it that easy?

God gives man many signs for him to change, from within and from outside. From outside, nature cries out about God and his ways but the cry of the inner man can we seldom ignore. Life teaches us many important lessons, we can only fool ourselves if we choose to ignore them, because we have only one life to get it right. We might choose to be indifferent to these signs. Our Botox treatments will at best help us till the grave but psychographics definitely matters beyond it. God looks at the inside of the man rather than the outside.

Let’s not ignore ‘the signs of the end’, because beyond it lays the judgment by the great judge, God himself!

Tags: botox, judgment, outer beauty, Richard Branson, signs of the end, Vijay Mallya

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 11:43 am and is filed under Articles, Fashion, Navin, New Findings, Relationships, Society, Thoughts, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.