Does turning 65 mean that a person’s usefulness comes to an end?
Last week, I was invited to speak at a programme on “Sharing Journalism Stories of My Time”—an opportunity to share some of my experiences with a group of young journalists.
The moment I began speaking, it felt as though several decades of my life were playing before me like scenes from an old film. It was a time when journalism had no email, no mobile phones, no Google—and certainly no Artificial Intelligence. But there were stories. There were important questions confronting society. And there was the responsibility to find those stories, understand them and take them to the readers.
During my nearly two decades in journalism, I witnessed and reported on several major events that remain vivid in my memory—the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, the demolition of the Babri Masjid, communal riots, Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, governments falling and being formed, and countless political, social and human-interest stories.
Yes, the way we gathered news was very different then. Information took time. We had to reach out to sources. We had to search for documents. The telephone was often our only means of communication. And sometimes, every single fact had to be checked and rechecked before a story could be published.
Technology has made journalism incredibly fast today. But those years taught us something that remains timeless: Speed matters. But in journalism, experience, the ability to ask the right questions and the capacity to distinguish fact from assumption matter even more.
The young journalists wanted to know how we found stories, built sources and verified facts in an age without email, mobile phones or “breaking news” alerts.
Their curiosity reminded me of something we often forget: A person’s capability does not come with an expiry date. A job may end. A designation may disappear. A professional role may change. But experience remains.
In fact, retirement can sometimes offer something that professional life cannot—freedom: freedom to write, mentor, research, create, speak and contribute on your own terms.
So if you have crossed 60 or 65 and ever wondered, “Who needs me now?” Perhaps the better question is: “Where can my experience make a difference now?”
Youth brings energy. Experience brings direction. And when the two come together, both society and the individual stand to gain.
There is no retirement from relevance. Perhaps we need to rethink the relationship between age and usefulness.
