On November 12, 2014, All-India Radio broadcast an interview with a well-known actor. The interviewer put this question to the actor: “You are totally different on the sets from what you are in real life. How do you succeed in performing a role which is different from your actual personality?” The actor replied: “When we perform for the screen, we detach ourselves totally from our real personality and cast ourselves in the mould of the character we have to play.”

This is an age of professionalism. In every profession, one has to perform one’s role under some ‘director’. While performing this role, a person detaches himself from his original personality for a temporary role. But, there is a problem. This relationship is not for life. A time comes when man has to retire from his profession.

A new situation awaits him after retirement. Having assumed the role of another personality in his professional life, he returns to his original self in his retired life. The original personality however has remained in an underdeveloped state. The person now has to face the life ahead with this underdeveloped self.

Furthermore, the post-retirement period is the most precious period of one’s life as it is the age of maturity. A comparison between the two periods of the person’s life results in despair. In the pre-retirement period he was acclaimed as a super-performer. However, in the postretirement period he is reduced almost to a non-performer. This explains why almost all the so-called successful persons, in the second phase of their lives, live and die in despair.

What is the solution to this problem? People have only one of two options. The first is to choose a self-discovered profession—a profession that may last lifelong, in which they may achieve what is called job satisfaction. The second option is to start a new life immediately after retirement—a life of their own choice. They should spend time on study and healthy activities, and try to realize their potential.

The second option, although, is not an alternative. But when the first and best is not available, then the second best is the only choice for a wise person.