Silver divorce, getting some 'me-time'

If a decade ago, you heard uncles and aunties loudly complain about how less and less younger folks are tying the knot, or are getting unhitched after a few years of marriage, now more and more of the uncles and aunties themselves seem to be opting for divorce.

'Silver divorce' - the growing trend in India of couples above the age of 50 - may not be the terrible 'home breaker' that it may seem to many from the outside.

After being together for decades on end, the wish to be alone once all the double, double toil and trouble are done and dusted can be understandable. The fact that one needn't have a marital crisis, but a simple wish to be alone (very different from being lonely) and be one's own woman or man is actually not bad news.


The two real heroes of the story are 'alone time' and the realisation that neither marriage nor divorce are etched in stone and are products of human agency - with dollops of social conditioning.

Bottomline: at 50-plus, chances of hitching or unhitching in a huff, or because of 'moving on', become a non-issue. If one chooses to divorce at an 'age of wisdom', it is because one finds more pleasure in me-time. Unless, of course, one is four-times married, four-times divorced Rupert Murdoch.