It is often said that one should age like wine. The older you get the better it gets. How weird is this metaphor of comparing the intoxicating effects of a fluid with age. Do older people seem more attractive? Or more intoxicating? Or with more gravitas? I think it might be due to this blend of all; the gravitas, a weird attractiveness of being carefree, and their intoxicating calmness than their younger ones that makes these older wines quite graceful and poignant. Even in their simplicity is a strong personality and character. This can be observed across the spectrum of elders, be it comparing them within a profession or within a family. There is a balance of knowledge, maturity and the ability to give freedom to the young ones to outshine them, that categorises a person to have aged like wine.
One exemplary book on this metaphor could be “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles. The writing of this book is exceptional and could easily be a course book. The English is immaculate, the life lessons are deep, and the manners the book teaches to the readers are like an elder teaching you calmly from the lessons of their long lived life. Alexander Rostov, a man kept on house arrest in the hotel Metropol for his lifetime, his initial urge to give up on life, followed by instead looking after the Hotel’s restaurant, and then raising a young girl, followed by teaching her to flap her wings and fly beyond the revolving doors of the hotel to see the world and live it, all the while being a graceful gentleman, is what the book is about. A great concoction of manners, vocabulary, literature, character depth, and a twist towards the end, made this book an exceptionally endearing read for me. And like fine wine, the book hooks you further with its concoction as you progress reading it, page after page, word after word.
While I may have highlighted tens of excerpts from this book, a few that made me marvel at the genius of the author are pasted below. I highly recommend reading it.
“For it is the role of the parent to express his concerns and then take three steps back. Not one, mind you, not two, but three. Or maybe four. (But by no means five.) Yes, a parent should share his hesitations and then take three or four steps back, so that the child can make a decision by herself—even when that decision may lead to disappointment.“
“Why is it that so many ghosts prefer to travel the halls of night? Ask the living and they will tell you that these spirits either have some unquenched desire or an unaddressed grievance that stirs them from their sleep and sends them out into the world in search of solace. But the living are so self-centered. Of course they would judge a spirit’s nocturnal wanderings as the product of earthly memories. When, in fact, if these restless souls wanted to harrow the bustling avenues of noon, there is nothing to stop them from doing so. No. If they wander the halls of night, it is not from a grievance with or envy of the living. Rather, it is because they have no desire to see the living at all. Any more than snakes hope to see gardeners, or foxes the hounds. They wander about at midnight because at that hour they can generally do so without being harried by the sound and fury of earthly emotions. After all those years of striving and struggling, of hoping and praying, of shouldering expectations, stomaching opinions, navigating decorum, and making conversation, what they seek, quite simply, is a little peace and quiet.”
Aali Pant 