5 Comments
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Krishnaprasad B's avatar

Oh boy. Is it a problem if this hits home in your 40s itself! Crying/not crying...

Srini Chandrasekharan's avatar

It’s entirely possible the timeline can accelerate on these things and maybe even a blessing! The later this happens the more likely we don’t handle this well because of mental fatigue, who knows? In my personal experience, the 50s seems to be a complicated phase :(

Appa Amma's avatar

Midlife struggle put in a humorous way and well audited. Though said things are true and they happen.

Bala's avatar

So true! Wonder how much is applicable for non-Indians

Srini Chandrasekharan's avatar

I’d guess the “silent audit” and the emotional reactions to it are fairly universal - across race, gender, class, geography ...I’m sure there are 1000s of Thanksgiving dinners where this plays out across families every year. I first observed this when I was 55, 3 years ago, and have been wanting to write about this for a while now. The 50s seem like a minefield, fraught with misunderstandings and rifts that would have been unimaginable in an earlier decade.