BAREFOOT TO OLD AGE. WILL THAT BE HOW OUR KIDS FACE THE TWILIGHT OF LIFE?

Some movies make you cry a lot and finally take you to a feel-good world.  A reward you deserve for pinning your hopes on a happy ending.  That's exactly what will not happen with 'Barefoot to Goa'.

It will wrench your heart.  Turn hope to despair.  Bring possibility to an abyss.  Reward repair with regret.  And hit longing with death.  Death, the monopolist dictator, the all-winning truth, the uncertain certainty, the full stop to life's breath.  A full stop to the world that could have been...

A world of grandparents and grandchildren.  A world full of stories, pampering, sweet and sour candies, innocent gifts and genuine love.  A meeting of generations skipping over 30 years.  The last window to witness a way of life for both sides.  A window that's closing for more and more of us.  It is said that the most enriching and fulfilled lives are lived in cultures where multiple family generations eat and live together.  More and more, that's becoming a rarity, for a sizeable number of us.

For a sizeable number of us who live in a world siloed in spite of it shrinking.  With filial separation as the accepted way to prosperity.  Closer to flying out of the country but farther away from our own roots and the elderly.  Eager to rise high in the eyes of world while leaving our own kin with blurry memories of time spent together.  All of this as a way of life, goes on.

Goes on until 'Barefoot to Goa' ends it with a shocking, hitting, momentous thump.  A thump that makes you wonder - what good are Grandma essay projects for school kids reared with Gerontophobia.  For if we bring up our children siloed from the elderly, they are sure to fear old age like a journey into the unknown.

Author: Silky Agarwal