We used to be a culture that venerated age. If you met someone older than you, it was customary to touch their feet and be suitably respectful to them in conversation. In the family, elders ruled, with their word being regarded as law. In society, the whiter your hair, the better are you chances of being taken seriously.

That wisdom has been turned on its head by our generation. We no longer see age as something that should be venerated and valued, but something that should be arrested at all cost. We don’t want to defer to old age; we just want to defer it indefinitely.

Workplaces are becoming increasingly ageist. Now, with every year you add after 50, your chances of finding a good job decrease exponentially. The days when everyone looked for experience are over; now it’s youthful dynamism that counts. So, even those among us, who are approaching middle age or are well within its hold, try hard to atleast appear younger. That means never allowing your hair to turn grey, exercising daily to ensure that your figure remains youthfully slim, and keeping up with the latest fashions- whether it be clothes, music or mobile technology-so that you always appear ‘with it’ rather than ‘past it’.

Women have always had to cope with these pressures, both at home and at the workplace, because they are expected to look goo and youthful in all circumstances. But now the bar has been raised even further. You can no longer look heavy and slob-like even when you are pregnant. No, you must be a normal-sized shape with a pretty baby bump- a la Angelina jolie – to show that you are going to give birth shortly. And no sooner have you popped the baby out, when it’s back to exercise and dieting so that you can get your original figure back. After all, every actress from Julia Roberts to Gwyneth Paltrow has managed, so what’s your excuse for looking like human blimp?

Yes, it’s true, you just can’t get old, fat and sloppy any more. You have to look young, you have to look good, or you are dismissed as a loser. The motto of our modern-day world appears to be- shape up or get shipped out.