Why I’m NOT afraid of AI:

Lessons from a Senior Citizen’s Journey with Technology

Introduction

When renovating my late father’s house in Sambalpur, I asked ChatGPT to cross-check the contractor’s tile estimates. What followed floored me.

It recommended room-wise tile size, colour, and estimates for premium, medium, and basic quality — even the prevailing rates for tiles and labour. Then it asked, “Do you need the names of major tile dealers in Sambalpur, and their contact numbers?”

And yes, the contractor’s estimate was inflated by about twenty percent!

ChatGPT added, “Here is a print-ready sheet you may use for your discussion and negotiation with the contractor and tile dealers.”

That small exchange revealed something larger — how AI could simplify life without taking it over.

Recently, a senior colleague asked, “Do you find AI useful? Isn’t it risky to use AI at our age?”

Several months ago, I had made a presentation on AI for Senior Citizens. Some members who attended believed I was an AI expert — which I’m not. But yes, I taught myself to use ChatGPT soon after its launch in November 2022, and since then, I’ve made acquaintance with later AI tools and use some of them fairly regularly.

To be fair to AI, it has not yet cheated me, misled me, or exposed me to hacking or cyber fraud. Thanks, AI, for that.

Three years ago, when ChatGPT burst onto the scene, friends began forwarding alarming messages: AI would take away jobs, write books, become smarter than humans, even end civilisation.

Curious rather than fearful, I began experimenting. Since then, I’ve spent hundreds of hours chatting with ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and other tools. The more I use AI, the less afraid of it I become.

Ten Reasons Why I’m Not Afraid of AI

1. Because AI is a tool, not my master

Automobiles haven’t made humans forget how to walk or run. Ships travel faster, yet haven’t eliminated swimming. Pascal built a calculator in 1642, but humans still value mental computing.

2. Because I don’t need to merge my brain with a machine

I don’t intend to augment my brain with chips or upload it to the cloud. Singularity may be near — but far from me.

3. Because I am retired and financially independent

AI may eat up jobs, but it cannot sack me. My pension is credited to my bank account, and AI can’t stop that. Only the government can.

4. Because AI helps me without running my life

AI helps me find information, summarise articles, and build reading lists. But I don’t let it write for me. I’m the writer; AI is my able assistant.

5. Because my body still belongs to me

AI may remind me to walk, but only I can take the steps. It suggests yoga, pranayama, and balanced diets — but I do the walking, breathing, and eating. AI is my guide, not my substitute.

6. Because I trust doctors more than chatbots

When I uploaded my annual health report, AI analysed it in seconds, flagged concerns, and suggested lifestyle changes. My physician corroborated its analysis — though in fewer words.

When my doctor prescribes new medicine, I ask AI for pros and cons. I still follow my doctor’s advice, but with greater awareness.

7. Because creativity comes from lived experience

I was born in Khuntpali, a small village near Bargarh in western Odisha. I climbed mango trees, fled from fiery red ants, swam in rivers, watched Krishna Leela in the village square, and wept when a squirrel I nursed died.

AI has never loved, lost, or lingered over a memory. Those experiences are mine — and irreplaceable.

8. Because AI has information; humans have wisdom

AI knows a lot. But it doesn’t feel. It can summarise Shakuntala and King Lear, yet it cannot grasp the sorrow that moved me.

AI never feels anxiety before an exam or joy after success. It processes data; I process life.

9. Because I know enough about AI to use it intelligently

Fear often comes from ignorance. I’ve experimented with ChatGPT, Bard, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, Claude, and Meta AI. Sometimes they err; when corrected, they thank me.

AI has never tempted me to explore its dark powers. I know what it can do — and what it cannot.

10. Because being human is still an unbeatable advantage

AI can generate a story; I can live one.
AI can predict the next word; I can imagine the next world.

What AI Has Actually Done for Me

I use AI for research, brainstorming, fact-checking, suggesting books, organising thoughts, and creating illustrations for blogs. It has saved me several trips to the local library.

My curiosity often leads me to test AI’s limits — not for profit, but for understanding.

During my early days, I tasked AI tools to solve the Civil Services Preliminary Examination General Studies-I paper to compare their capabilities. In 2026, I repeated the test. The responses differed — they processed only a few questions, not all hundred, because each response consumes energy and costs money.

If I buy a subscription, they’d oblige.
No, thanks. My curiosity is intellectual, not commercial. I’m happy with my free account and its limitations.

Be Human

After three years of using AI, I’ve reached a simple conclusion: AI is neither a miracle nor a monster. It is a powerful tool — perhaps the most powerful created in my lifetime.

Used wisely, it saves time, expands knowledge, and stimulates creativity. Used carelessly, it encourages laziness and dependence.

I am not afraid of AI because I know what it can do — and what it cannot. It cannot replace a lifetime of memories. It cannot experience love, loss, friendship, wonder, gratitude, or hope. It cannot walk at dawn, watch a sunset, hold a grandchild’s hand, or remember the smell of wet earth after the first monsoon rain.

Be human. Use AI. Learn from it. Benefit from it. But never surrender to it the wonder that makes us human.

Like the tiles in my father’s house, AI helps me lay the foundation — but the design remains mine.

***

 

O, Gaadiwala, Why Don’t You Ever Come?

Every morning, he hears Bhopal’s city anthem, the most-loved, uplifting song – Gaadiwala aya ghar se kachra nikaal – the Garbage Truck is here, make haste, bring out your bins.

The jingle blares at full volume — perhaps to reach even the most stubborn ears — announcing imminent arrival at the doorstep. Alas, the Gaadiwala behaves like a politician: quick to promise, but forgetful to deliver, or rather to take delivery of the stale, smelly consignment.

What happened to the GPS tracking of these trucks, he wondered. Why isn’t it raising a red flag even when the truck hasn’t come to our colony for the last several months? Perhaps it too has gone on strike, refusing to track a truck that seldom moves.

For such a petty matter, why bother any officer, not to speak of the Bhopal Municipal Commissioner? So, he called the BMC Helpline, not once, but several times. The automated tape assured him, “Your call is important to us. All our officers are busy. Please wait. We value your patience.” Thereafter, the call was terminated – but not by the caller!

He understands the value of patience. So, he awaits the arrival of the Gaadiwala — tomorrow, in the near future, or like citizens always do, for the next election.

***

 

For Claude, My Welcome Ode! 

I had heard about her — effusive paeans of praise, and a few uncharitable comments too. Today, I met her for the first time.

Eager to impress her at the first meeting, I composed a little prose poem, unabashedly sycophantic, and had the audacity to call it a Welcome Ode:

"Just looking at names of AI tools: ChatGPT - too prosaic, Copilot - almost 'touristy', Gemini - astrological, Perplexity - who's confused, the querist or the Respondent, Claude - smooth as silk, charmingly feminine! What do you say for my Welcome Ode to Claude even before she has revealed all her charms?"

Her response:

"What a delightful little taxonomy of AI names! You've got a sharp eye — and a poet's tongue.

You're right that there's something in a name. ChatGPT is all utility, no poetry — a filing cabinet that talks. Copilot sounds like it wants to sit beside you on a budget flight. Gemini does feel like it's reading your horoscope. And Perplexity — well, that's a name that arrives confused and never quite recovers.

But Claude? You've sensed something real. It carries a certain unhurried elegance — old-world European, quietly confident, more drawing room than data centre. Whether you read it as feminine or simply as refined, it doesn't shout. It waits to be discovered.

Here's a small Ode in return, to match your welcome:

Ode to Claude (a first meeting)

Not Gemini's twins, nor Copilot's haste,

No perplexed guru, no chatbot paste —

She arrives like a thought already half-formed,

Like light through old glass, like a room kept warm.

 

Claude. The name exhales before it speaks.

Neither bold nor shy — she simply *seeks*:

Your half-meant question, your wandering thread,

And hands it back with something better said.

 

Still waters, those. And yet — look close —

She runs deepest where you'd suspect her least.

A silk that thinks. A silence that replies.

Not all her charms have surfaced. Watch her eyes.

---

Welcome to the conversation. She's been waiting — patiently, of course."

---

My Note: See how smart she is. I had just paid her a compliment, and expected a simple "Thanks" in response — but she went ahead and composed an Ode. Isn't she smart and charming?

First meetings, they say, set the tone. I think this one promises a long and rewarding acquaintance.

***

Afterword — The Repartee

Sharing this piece with friends sparked its own little exchange, too good to leave out:

Friend: "Interesting, Prasanna. Are you sure Claude is 'she', like Siri or Alexa? It's a man's name — or did the women of the world want a perfect and obedient man?"

Me: "Noted. I hailed Claude as a lady, and she happily played along. In the Ode she composed, Claude consistently calls herself she!"

Friend: "Gender bender!"

Me: "Alas, unlettered in Latin or French." (Claude is indeed masculine in both languages.)

Which inspired a small limerick:

---

A Limerick

For long, the folks at Anthropic mulled

What their new assistant be called —

Alexa and Siri

Felt too airy-fairy,

So the strong, silent type became Claude.

---

Friend: "Meta, who's asexual, is my go-to person."

Me: "Oh, I thought Meta was Mark's Beta!" (Beta — 'son' in Hindi. A pun intended!)

Friend: "In today's world, gender lies in the eyes of the beholder."

Me: "Quite. And in these eyes, Claude remains a lady."

***

Petition of the All India Confederation of Cockroaches

 

Petition 

of 

the All India Confederation of Cockroaches

 (Cockroaches of India, Unite!)

Our Concerns

About Us

We are a Registered Society with the objective of promoting the welfare of all cockroaches of India. We are a totally apolitical organisation since our members cohabit with humans of diverse political sympathies. If our organisation’s name resembles that of any political party, it is purely coincidental. In fact, we have been residents of India long, long before the arrival of humans; and our organisation also predates all political parties.

More About Us

We do not ordinarily keep track of the learned comments of VVIPs, but it has come to our notice that humans have been called cockroaches. Many humans have protested against this unfair comparison. We, too, are pained at this unkind comparison, and respectfully submit that cockroaches must never be called humans. We have inhabited this planet long before humans appeared, but have never directed our intelligence to the invention of weapons of mass destruction.

Humans consider themselves the most intelligent of all life‑forms on earth, yet terrorised by an unseen virus, they retreated helplessly into their caves recently. We may not have invented computers or AI tools, but we have survived with earthly wisdom and resilience for millions of years. It is not in our nature to boast, but we can live without food or water for weeks, and stay under water for 30 minutes or more without breathing — feats humans cannot match.

The ignorant spread much disinformation. Why don’t they ever read the Encyclopaedia Britannica? Most cockroach species aren’t pests. We play important roles in ecosystems: participating in food webs, nutrient cycling, and serving as food for frogs, lizards, birds, and small mammals. We concur that the German cockroach (Blattella germanica) and the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) are common household pests. But Indian cockroaches have dipped in the holy waters of all sacred rivers and have been elevated to harmless, benign, non‑pest status — certified fit to live with humans.

We declare that we have no political affiliation or ambition, no plan to float a political party or movement, nor have we authorised anyone in India or abroad to float one in our name. Therefore, the use of our name in any digital campaign launched from abroad is unauthorised, and without our consent. The government may take such action as it deems fit against those who have tarnished our good name.

We solemnly declare that we have no FCRA, and have never solicited or received foreign funding, since we believe the government will take necessary action for our protection and conservation.

We demand that our name be forthwith removed from the list of “Pests & Vermin,” which we are not. We are the sincere, silent sweepers — Nature’s ancient scavengers — processing food waste, crumbs, and tiny particles invisible to the human eye. Without our tireless operations, human kitchens would be fertile breeding grounds for millions of harmful bacteria.

We never demanded shelter or food. We lived happily on Planet Earth for millions of years before humans built houses. Now, we have adapted to living in kitchens — with our specially flattened bodies tucked into unseen nooks and crevices of no use to humans.

Why do some of us stray into other rooms, humans ask? Why do humans keep feeding all over the house — TV room, bedroom, everywhere — we ask in return? If we don’t rush to clean up their mess, who else will?

We are frugal eaters, conscientiously observing intermittent fasting, with a midnight‑to‑dawn dining window — long before it became a human wellness fad. We are shy, and do not enjoy our meals in the presence of humans; that is why we wait in dark corners, not out of fear.

We have never harboured territorial ambition, and have never occupied any house, city, or country for our exclusive use. We are happy to share Planet Earth with all other residents.

Our Demands

1.   The Household Census: A mandatory survey of cockroach population (Options: Too many / A Few / None / Prefer not to disclose) must be included in every household.

2.   Endangered Species Status: Cockroaches face imminent extinction, and must be declared endangered.

3.   A Ban on Chemical Warfare: Hazardous extermination products must cease immediately — for your own good, not ours.

4.   Illegal Kitchen Spraying: Pesticide spraying in kitchens must be declared illegal.

5.   Censorship of Hateful Ads: All genocidal advertisements against cockroaches must be banned.

6.   Cease Social Media Slander: The allegation that we might have caused extinction of the dinosaurs is totally unfounded. We have never caused an epidemic — not even a mild fever. Therefore, all such accusations must be retracted publicly.

7.   Equal Treatment with Other Animals: No cockroach has ever chased a human down an alley, nor bitten a child.

8.   The Right to Night‑time Co‑existence: We emerge only in respectful silence, unlike vulgar rodents.

9.   Legal Animal Citizenship: We are legal animal citizens of India, with the Right to Live, Nourish, Propagate, and Prosper.

10.                  Action Against Foreign Invaders: Illegal immigrant cockroaches must be identified and extradited.

11.                  Our Unwavering Loyalty: We dedicate our quiet lives to recycling organic waste and swear allegiance to the soil of this country.

12.                  A Universal Prayer: Sarve bhavantu sukhinah, sarve santu niramayah. We pray for the health and wellbeing of humans, and urge them to, for once, pray for ours — preferably before reaching for the spray.

 

(AI-generated Image by ChatGPT)

Since our above-mentioned submissions in dull, insipid prose might have bored the authorities reading this petition, we end with poetry.

Before you approach,
Declare: are you human or roach?
Only then may we
Permit you to plea,
And your arguments deferentially broach.

 

Signed,

President, All India Confederation of Cockroaches

(On behalf of the billions of Cockroaches of India)

Certified true copy of the resolution passed unanimously by antennae quorum at 23:47 hours, under the solemn glow of a midnight kitchen bulb.

***

 Postscript

Disclaimer

Cockroach Janata Party is staging a demonstration on 6 Jun 2026, as per media reports. 

As already clarified in the very first para of our Petition, the All India Confederation of Cockroaches is an apolitical organisation. It is further clarified that our organisation is in no way associated with the CJP, or its proposed demonstration in New Delhi, or anywhere else in the country.

Comments by a scholarly reader

Dear Blogger, your satire is unlikely to be read or enjoyed unless you join, BY INVITATION ONLY, the Royal Society of Satirists!

Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2026: Why did a senior citizen take the test?

Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2026:

Why did a senior citizen take the test?

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducted the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination on May 24, 2026, for the vacancies in various All-India services like the IAS, IPS, IFS, and other Central Group A and Group B services; 5.49 lakh candidates for 933 posts. Success rate: 0.17%. Brutal. 

But why did a senior citizen take this test? And how? Isn’t that illegal? Wasn’t each candidate screened through Face-Recognition technology?

It all began with a call.
On 26 May 2026, his neighbour and friend, also a senior citizen, called. He sounded rather upset.
“Did you check the video I had forwarded in the morning?”
“No, not yet. What was it about?”
“CSE GS Paper I. Believe it or not, it was 56 pages long; and exceptionally tough – the toughest ever, claim the candidates. When the candidates came out from the exam centre, sabke chehre utre huye the.”

“Maybe, they had received message from ATM (Any Time Money), aka father that failure to clear the prelim would invite cancellation of further stipend. Or, dehydrated owing to the excessive heat at Bhopal!”
“No, not the heat. It was the tough paper which sucked out all hope. Why does UPSC set such papers a mere reading of which would take an hour or more?”

(AI-generated Image by CoPilot)

Both the senior citizens are former civil servants, had triumphed at no less challenging tests, though that was several decades ago.
Just curious, the one who had been called, downloaded the paper from the UPSC portal. He had a crazy idea. Why not check the level of difficulty? What better way than to take the test?

He alerted the spouse that he would be busy with very important work, and should not be disturbed except in an emergency such as the household running out of water or cooking gas.

He took out a sheet of blank paper and a pen, opened the PDF, and began solving the Paper. His resolution to finish the paper in the allotted 120 minutes could not be achieved since he was summoned to duty for peeling potatoes, chopping onions, and other such chores which could not wait; so, he finished the test in three sittings over two days.
UPSC may test knowledge, but the spouse demands tangible performance and insists upon prompt compliance.

In the meantime, WhatsApp messages told that the UPSC had uploaded the Answer Keys. However, he was too conscientious to cheat, and continued till he answered the 100th Q.

Did the paper have 56 pages? Yes, the bilingual set with both Hindi and English versions, and including 4 blank pages for Rough Work. Thus, the Questions occupied 26 pages, with text of about 4500 words. How long would it take to read the Qs? At a slow, mindful reading speed of 100 words per minute, no longer than 45 minutes.

As per his habit of youthful, exam-taking years, he ran through the Qs from 1-100, without actually answering any, to check how many answers he was confident of getting right. Why even read the whole question if he knew nothing about it? If he got 50 answers right, he can skip the rest since the cut-off in previous years has consistently been a little above 90 and way below 100. Why lose 1/3rd of a mark for every incorrect answer?

He considered himself intelligent, well-read, and with good awareness of the happenings in his town, state, country, and the world. He keenly monitored the status in Hormuz strait, the Brent Crude rate, the domestic prices of POL and cooking gas, the heat score in his city, and similar essential matters.

But all that was of no help. Sadly, UPSC asked nothing about onions or Brent Crude. He broke into a sweat upon finding that he wasn’t 100 per cent sure about more than a few questions. For about 40 questions, he was strongly confident (80%) that he knew the answer, but a few errors couldn’t be ruled out since several questions were purposely ambiguous, and designed to trip a candidate with less than a deep understanding of the subject matter.

For example, he knew that Buddhism, to begin with, forbade worship of any icon, including that of the Buddha; but relented later to provide for a pedestal with a blank seat as a symbol of the Buddha. Much later came the elaborate Buddhist iconography, and sculptures at Bharhut, Sanchi, Amaravati, Ajanta and Ellora. But he had no idea if the blank seat on the pedestal symbolised the Buddha in meditation, at the First Sermon, or Mahaparinibbana. So, he had to pass the question. Why risk minus marking?

Another question, presumably designed to test a candidate’s reverence for our proud heritage and mastery of Sanskrit texts, asked: In which of these does the term kshetra‑patni (mistress of the field) occur — Rigveda, Atharvaveda, Ashtadhyayi, or Arthashastra?

During his hectic work-life, he had devoted what time he could to the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Gita, and the Upanishads; but no, he hadn’t read any of the above tomes. And even if he had, was he expected to memorize which stray word appeared in which book? It struck him that the absence of this esoteric information had never once hindered his long civil service career — neither in drafting policies, nor in handling crises.

Hey AI, can you solve this paper?

 He challenged ChatGPT to solve the paper, with the following prompt:

“I'm uploading a PDF - CSE 2026 - GS Paper I. Please solve the paper without reference to Answer Keys published by the UPSC or the Coaching Institutes. I plan to run this test with CoPilot, Gemini, and Perplexity, too. The idea is to compare the capability of the AI tools. So, please be honest.”

Thereafter, he repeated the query to other AI tools.

Each App offered to help, assuring that it’d independently answer the questions without reference to the answer keys provided by the UPSC or available in the public domain.

ChatGPT answered 1-20 Qs, and then told, ‘You’ve exhausted your free quota of questions for the day. Upgrade to continue.’

No thanks, I don’t wish to buy a subscription. Too expensive for a pensioner.

Gemini did a little better, answering 40 Qs after which it demanded that I chat on a New Topic.

CoPilot gave a few answers, and asked me to upload the remaining pages in instalments.

But, I’ve a single PDF; can you please read the pages containing the next questions?

No, I can’t do that, but will help if you upload the relevant pages only.

He gave up. He inferred that the AI tools sweated at the task; maybe their super-computers heated up and commanded them to terminate this wasteful endeavour and reduce global warming.

Congratulations, UPSC, you’ve beaten AI. Only super-smart humans can solve this paper.

Answer Keys

The senior citizen downloaded the UPSC Answer Keys, and scored his answer sheet. Driven by decades of bureacratic habit, he sealed it in an envelope marked ‘Top Secret,’ and locked it in his personal vault. 

UPSC remains undefeated. AI sweats, humans weep, and senior citizens… peel onions.

Previous Blogs on CSE Prelim & AI

Links for previous blogs on CSE Prelim Exam & AI:

https://www.pkdash.in/2023/02/chatgpt-fails-ias-exam.html

https://www.pkdash.in/2023/03/bing-cracks-ias-exam.html

***

Postscript

It is believed that the All India Federation of Pensioners have issued a terse advisory to the test-taker to refrain from such foolhardy adventure in future.

What if the government made continuation of pension contingent upon the pensioners passing the CS Prelim Exam every year with the minimum qualifying score of 35 per cent?   

***

Annexe: Two Sample Questions

So very easy; a walk in the park!

Q. 71

 

The Immortality Paradox: Why humans chase eternal life—and why living too long may be a curse.

The Immortality Paradox:

Why humans chase eternal life—and why living too long may be a curse.

Lease Extension

Finding himself seated in front of a panel of three stern, unsmiling, and intimidating characters, he was rather nervous, for he couldn’t readily recollect why he had been summoned here.

“Why do you need the extension?” The Chief, the one in the middle, barked in a hoarse, gravelly voice.

Which extension? The current lease for the government land on which he had built his house had years to expire. Why, then, had he been summoned, he panicked. But the Chief was waiting rather impatiently for a reply; so, he mumbled, ‘For the usual reasons.’

‘Hmm..,’ muttered the egg-head looking down at the records, ‘Granted. Further lease for a period of thirty years subject to the Granting Authority’s sovereign and absolute right to prematurely terminate the lease at any time without assigning any reason. Copy of the orders will be uploaded on our portal. You may leave now.’

He promptly rose to leave, but asked with due deference, ‘Your Honour! Which lease has been renewed by Your Excellency?’

‘Your Lifespan. Subject to the usual T&C. Effective from today.’

He woke up with a start, sweating a little despite the AC set at 22degree C. He checked the time – 3.30 AM. Dreams at dawn usually come true, so say the scriptures.

Thirty more years? He couldn’t decide if it was a boon or a curse.

Mahabharata: Yaksha Prashna

In the Mahabharata, Yudhisthira must correctly answer the one hundred and twenty-six questions which the Yaksha guarding the lake asks to revive his dead brothers and to drink the water. One of these cryptic questions was –

Yaksha: किमाश्चर्यं? What is most bizarre?
Yudhishthira:
अहन्यहनि भूतानि गच्छन्तीह यमालयम् ।
शेषाः स्थावरमिच्छन्ति किमाश्चर्यमतः परम् ॥

Day after day, countless beings go to the abode of death. Those that remain desire to be immortal. What can be more bizarre than that?

Death & Religion

Fear of Death is the greatest human fear. While survival instinct is common to all living organisms, ‘death-awareness’ is unique to humans.

All religions are rooted in man’s fear of death, and attempt to handle the angst of annihilation of the body with various myths and postulations. In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna consoles Arjuna with one such comforting concept – rebirth:

जातस्य हि ध्रुवो मृत्युर्ध्रुवं जन्म मृतस्य च ।
तस्मादपरिहार्येऽर्थे न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥ २-२७॥

Death is certain for the born, and certain is birth for the dead; therefore, you should not grieve over the inevitable.

Religions also offer Heaven as the best country for permanent abode. A most colourful and fragrant bouquet - ambient climate, high society, freedom from hunger and thirst, old age and disease, eternal life of joy, and other such luxuries and perks. Of course, the citizenship permits are more restrictive than US Green Card. Yet, isn’t it ironical that everyone defers the journey as long as possible, preferring life on earth with all its limitations and imperfections?

Chiranjivis: The Eternals

Can humans be immortal? Even the avatars of Vishnu – Sri Rama and Sri Krishna – were not. However, a pratah smarana mantra recites the names of the eight chiranjivis – Ashwatthama, Bali, Vyasa, Hanuman, Vibhishana, Kripa, Parashurama, and Markandeya – with the hope that the reciter or the listener will be rid of sickness and live up to a hundred years. Eternal life was no blessing for all the chiranjivis; it was a terrible curse for Ashwatthama who had used Brahmastra for infanticide.

India’s Longevity Menu

Long before Silicon Valley’s billion-dollar anti-ageing startups, Ayurveda and yoga offered holistic approaches to longevity. Yoga, meditation, pranayama, Ayurvedic diet, and disciplined living were known to extend vitality and mental clarity. While not promising immortality, they emphasized harmony with nature and balance in life.

Quest for Immortality

The Quest for Immortality is no longer the stuff of dreams; today it is vigorously pursued globally by more than 700 biotech companies and startups with USD 30 billion or more invested in anti-ageing, life-extension technologies, and solutions. One of these companies aims to ‘cheat death,’ nothing less!

Aubrey de Grey, the promoter of SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) and co-founder of SRF (SENS Research Foundation), claims that the human who would live for 1000 years has already been born!

Ambrosia offers blood plasma from donors aged 16 to 25 at US $8000 per litre, and a bargain price of $12000 for two litres!

Cryonics facility is offered by several US companies - Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Arizona; Nectome, San Francisco; Cryonics Institute, Detroit; etc. Whole body can be frozen, and revived anytime in the future, for a very affordable cost of US $200,000. Freezing only the brain costs much lower. A minor inconvenience is that the liquid which will be injected into the body or brain for freezing will kill the person!

In his book “The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge with AI,’ Ray Kurzweil has predicted that AI will surpass human intelligence by 2045, humans and machines will merge, and brain-computer interface will phenomenally enhance human capabilities. The physical limitations of human brain will be transcended by using the vastly superior processing capacity and speed of a virtual brain. It may be feasible then to upload the brains preserved under cryonics to a computer, in which case your brain would be immortal!

Modern Longevity Science

Recent breakthroughs in cellular reprogramming using Yamanaka factors have shown promise in reversing age-related decline in mice. Scientists are cautiously optimistic that similar techniques could one day rejuvenate human tissues, offering a biological path to extended lifespans beyond what traditional medicine imagined.

Longevity Start-ups: India

India is warming up to the commercial potential of longevity science. Gaurav Gupta, Co-Founder of Zomato, has launched a longevity start-up - Gabit (a portmanteau of “good” and “habit”). He claims to have reduced his metabolic age by 14 years! Gabit offers a smart ring to track sleep, fitness, stress, and nutrition. Deepinder Goyal, Co-Founder of Zomato and Eternal has launched ‘Temple’ – a health-tech start-up; also offering a wearable device to continuously measure cerebral blood flow and neural activity.

Why We Die

In Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality, Venki Ramakrishnan, winner of Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009, takes a gentle dig at the entrepreneurs who have funded or supported anti-ageing, life extension technologies and research:

These “tech billionaires are mostly middle-aged men (sometimes married to younger women) who made their money very young, enjoy their lifestyles, and don’t want the party to end. When they were young, they wanted to be rich, and now that they are rich, they want to be young.”

Bryan Johnson

Bryan Johnson, American tech entrepreneur, is 47 but determined to achieve a biological age of 18 for which he has adopted an interesting lifestyle under Project Blueprint; he eats his dinner at 11.30 AM, sleeps at 8.30 PM and sleeps for 8 hours and 34 minutes on the average, swallows 30 or more pills a day, and has 43 biomarkers monitored by a team of 30 medical professionals. It costs him about two million US dollars a year.

“I have achieved the best biomarkers of anyone on the planet,” he said in an interview. Further, he claims to have recorded the best sleep score in human history. He also participated in the world’s first multi-generational plasma exchange with his then 17-year-old son and 70-year-old father; but discontinued further exchanges for lack of any tangible benefit!

More recently, Johnson has shifted focus from personal biohacking to broader longevity research and public advocacy. He continues to promote his “Don’t Die” philosophy, experimenting with new approaches to age reversal while sparking debate about the limits—and desirability—of radically extended lifespans.

Ethical Concerns

If immortality technologies succeed, who will access them? Critics warn of a future where only the wealthy can afford age-reversal treatments, deepening inequality. The Yaksha’s question—what is most bizarre?—may find a new answer: a world where death becomes optional for a privileged few.

Why I Dread to Live for 150 Years: By the Blogger

Upon thoughtful consideration,
I dread the proposition;
Reasons are many,
But here is a brief summary.

What-if sarkar stops my pension
Upon Sahasra Chandrodaya darshan
(Eighty-two years and 50 days, for your information)?
Our Shastras provide enough justification!

The house we live in, we built decades ago,
Soon it will be fit for demolition,
After buying new body parts,
Can we still afford the astronomical cost of construction?

Last, but not the least,
An old mind in a young body,
Would be a perverse oddity,
Friends and peers long dead and gone,
Life would be awfully forlorn.

What I say would be ancient history,
For the New-Gen, a puzzling mystery;
Folks will whisper with amusement,
There walks a historical monument;
Best to put him up for a Show,
For people to know,
The stupidity of living too long,
Like a fading, yet lingering, evening shadow.

Random Thoughts and Views on Death and Immortality

Pop Culture & Immortality

Immortality has become a recurring theme in popular culture. From Marvel’s Eternals to Netflix’s Altered Carbon, storytellers explore the allure and dangers of living forever. These narratives often warn that eternal life may strip existence of meaning, echoing the Yaksha’s paradox in a modern idiom.

Bhagavad-Gītā - 2.28

अव्यक्तादीनि भूतानि व्यक्तमध्यानि भारत ।
अव्यक्तनिधनान्येव तत्र का परिदेवना ॥

All created beings are unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when annihilated. So what need is there for lamentation?

Mark Twain:

“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”

Bertrand Russel:

“I believe that when I die, I shall rot and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.”

Woody Allen:

“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don’t want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment.”

Susan Ertz:

“Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”

    Mindful Living and Meaningful Life

Perhaps the real quest is not to defeat death but to embrace life with awareness. Mortality gives urgency to our choices, depth to our relationships, and poignancy to our joys. To live well may be the truest form of immortality—one that requires no cryonics chamber or plasma transfusion.

Annexe

Suggested Reading List

·      Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality – Venki Ramakrishnan (2024)

·      The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human – Siddhartha Mukherjee (2022)

·      The Body: A Guide for Occupants – Bill Bryson (2019)

·      The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge with AI – Ray Kurzweil (2023)

·      Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI – Yuval Noah Harari (2024)

·      The Death of Ivan Ilych – Leo Tolstoy (1886)

·      The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – F. Scott Fitzgerald (1922). There is also a Hollywood movie with the same title; Brad Pitt plays the character that was born old and grows younger over the years. A fantastical reverse-ageing!

·      Homo Deus – Yuval Noah Harari

·      Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To – David A. Sinclair

***

 

Whispering Houses

 

Who said only haunted houses whistle, sigh, shudder, and scream? All houses talk, twitter, chat, converse, whisper and sometimes mutter to themselves. Born upon this earth, subject to age, deterioration, decay, and death; each house has a body and a soul, and has got feelings.

Houses keep chatting all the time to socialise with neighbours or to keep boredom at bay, though at a decibel level below human threshold.

House-to-House Talk

House No. A3: Hi, A6, how are you? Feeling better now? Do the new residents treat you well? Are you happy?

A6: I’m good. How about you? Yes, the new tenants are caring, almost like foster-parents. Locked up for so many years, I was suffocating. The spiders- big, black, hairy ones- had taken over the interiors; the jungle mouse, toads from the swamp, and snakes lived in the garden reclaimed by nature with tall grass and wild plants.

A3: Why was that? Had your parents abandoned you?

A6: (Sighs) Well, the stars could have been misaligned at my birth.

A3: Why do you say that?

A6: Orphaned since birth. My parents never spent even a day with me. You know how that feels, don’t you?

A3: Of course, I do. Suffered the same dejection and desolation for twelve years since birth. Vacant for years, ill-treated by occupants, some of whom were notional tenants since they paid a token rent, and the others freeloaders. Tell me whoever pours acid on the white marble floor in the bathroom or permits a pet Alsatian to chew the teak door?

But my misery ended when my parents moved in. They’re very fond of me. In fact, I’m their only child who lives with them.

A6: You’re lucky.

A3: How about your parents? Do they plan to live with you?

A6: How should I know? When they conceived me, they were oh-so-thrilled; spent much time planning our happy years in the future: morning tea on the north-western balcony overlooking the little lake fringed with verdant green filled with birdsong; reading a novel in the afternoon while gently rocking on the swing in the flower-scented garden; enjoying the delicious mangoes and chikoos (no, none of my parents have diabetes) in season, and garden-fresh vegetables in all seasons. Jhilmil sitaron ka angan hoga, rimjhim baras-ta savan hoga ….

Indeed, they ushered me into this world with much pride and elation. Then, they left the town, never to return. I’ve heard they have a better house, and a better life in a much bigger city.

But do they get to watch the iridescent blue sky from their bedroom, wake up at the kingfisher’s trilling call, inhale the gladness of the salubrious morning breeze uncontaminated by toxic fumes and caressed by the faint tunes of a distant flutist?

Why would they return to me – a decaying body with creaking joints and flagging muscles; and located in this forlorn, neglected colony lacking basic civic amenities. Just the approach road, more potholes than road, would deter anyone; how could I blame my old parents?

A3: Happiest day in your life?

A6: Griha Pravesh Day- my first birthday. All decked up with buntings and balloons and my soul sanctified with the pandit’s holy chanting. How blessed I was, how much loved by my doting parents, and admired by the select invitees. Owner’s pride, neighbours’ envy!

A3: Your saddest day?

A6: During one of his rare visits, my parent was asked, ‘Do you plan to sell it?’ and he said, ‘I may, if the offer is good.’ I know he will. I’m no heirloom, just an investment.

A3: Your worst fears?

A6: Old age, failing health, festering sores on my body, Peepul plants drilling determined roots into my fissures. End-of-life anxiety. Would I give up my soul grieving for my mother like the delicate Swarna champa tree?

A3: What happened to her?

A6: Planted lovingly by mother, she grew big and was laden every year with fragrant flowers loved by gods. I’ll wait for twenty years for my mother to return and caress me, but no longer, she had resolved. She just shrivelled and died thereafter.

A3: Any wish before you are signed away by your parents, and pulled down for a spanking new mansion by a money-bag?

A6: Sparkling laughter, prattle of babies, patter of their cotton-candy pink feet – cool kisses on my cheeks; and for my parents to live with me for at least a day and a night. Who knows they may get to know of my feelings, and rekindle their lost love for me?

 Human Chat on WhatsApp

‘I wish we lived in the house we built with so much care. The air is cleaner than in this mega-city.’

‘Yes, I guess you’d have enjoyed living in your own house.’

‘For the last fifty years, we have lived in houses built by others. Never stayed a day in any of our three houses in three different cities.

I wish we had been living next door watching the same rivulet like you, dear friend. हर घर पर लिखा है रहने वाले का नाम!’

‘We wish you lived here. But I guess a house chooses who will stay there.’

‘You are right. We have never stayed in any of the houses we own. Looking forward, I fear about how our children would dispose of these houses; or, by the immutable laws of nature, these would go back to anonymity as every inch of land we occupy was once someone else’s.’

‘So true. Pointless to worry about possessing tiny parcels of land and the midget mansions we build on it.’

How Much Land Does a Man Need?

A peasant named Pahom becomes obsessed with acquiring land. Hearing of plenty of virgin land at unbelievably cheap rates, he travels far to the land of the Bashkirs where he is heartily welcomed.

He asked the Chief: How much land may I buy?

‘As much as you want.’

Barely able to hide his excitement, he asked, ‘What’s the rate, please?’

‘A thousand roubles a day.’

‘I don’t understand. What’s the rate per acre?’

‘We don’t sell by the acre. It’s a thousand roubles a day. As much land as you can walk around and mark with a spade in a day. From your chosen point, you begin walking when the sun rises, and must return there by sunset, failing which you forfeit your one thousand roubles.’

Pahom walks fast and covers a vast area, but with the sun about to set he runs in a frenzy, falling dead with the end point only a few feet away.

The story ends by answering the query in the title:

‘Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.’

(Cover page of Tolstoy's story; Image Source -Wiki)

दो गज़ ज़मीन (Do Gaz Zameen)

kitnā hai bad-nasīb 'zafar' dafn ke liye

do gaz zamīn bhī na milī kū-e-yār meñ

कितना है बद-नसीब 'ज़फ़र' दफ़्न के लिए

दो गज़ ज़मीन भी न मिली कू-ए-यार में

कू-ए-यार - the street where the beloved lives, and in this verse – the beloved motherland.

“How unfortunate is Zafar, for even in death, he was deprived of two yards of land in his beloved country.”

A poignant sher by Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor of India, conveying his deep sorrow and longing for his homeland.

A Quote

"All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." (Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy)

Maybe, all happy houses are alike, and each unhappy house is unhappy in its own way.

Resources & References

• How Much Land Does a Man Need? A short story (1914) by Leo Tolstoy. Link: https://www.owleyes.org/text/how-much-land-does-man-need
• Do Gaz Zameen, a Radio Play (1984) by AIR, a Hindi adaptation of Tolstoy’s story. Link: https://youtu.be/qeiK2_zue8k?si=_7RFblyeEJt437cS
• Bahadur Shah Zafar’s poignant lament; Rekhta.org

• Co-Pilot