Keeping the fire burning..

My seventy four year old friend from Nagpur, who visits our college regularly to deliver lectures to the students, never stops learning.  He had been a brilliant student and had retired as a successful geologist and officer from the Geological Survey of India. Even at this age he is as sharp as a razor. He keeps on reading books on various subjects. 

The other day, he asked me, “What is the full form of CDMA and what is GSM?” 

Mr R N Padhi

The two terms are familiar to me but I could not answer him immediately as my knowledge was very very limited. I had to refer to Wikipedia to get some information on these two mobile technologies. Telecommunication is not my field neither his. But I had never bothered to read about them till my friend asked me that question.   

As I was reading about CDMA and GSM in the net, few teachers entered my room at the right moment and came to my rescue.  One among them was an expert in that area and explained the technologies in simple words. My friend kept on asking him related questions and the teacher answered them all. 


I just kept wondering, how can a man at this age remain so inquisitive like a four year old boy!

Suddenly I realized, probably that is the reason why his memory is still so sharp, why he is still so active and enthusiastic, why he does not have ailments that can hamper his movements across the big country like India.

I also read in the net what researchers had found that "Cognitively active persons in old age  2.6 times less likely to develop old age related disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease than a cognitively inactive person.

Keeping the fire alive is the key, I concluded