Sir David, scores a perfect century!

By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

Centuries are what history is made up of and centuries are what any cricketer would like to quickly pile up, in the basket of his achievements and a century is what most people would love to live for, although very few of us live long enough to get there.

But living for a full century, which is longed for by most, does not come easy even for most of the people who are destined to cross that milestone. To be able to live long, in good health, without being confined to a hospice bed or even to your own bed at home, is what constitutes the real and much longed for joy of living long.

To enjoy living for a hundred years, you have to reach that goal by being able to at least get around your own house unassisted, on your own two feet, do your most personal daily grooming all by yourself, eat from a plate with your own steady hands, wear your pants yourself and most importantly, also keep them dry, without packing any adult diapers inside!

Otherwise, living long can be the most painful phase of life, even if you happen to be the few amongst us who have the most loving and caring family members around you.

Mind you, whether you have the courage to accept it or not, it is an irrefutable fact of life today that as most people begin to get older, they find themselves getting lonelier and lonelier. It is not because their children do not love them anymore like before, but most often it is because they have to leave the parental nest and pursue their owns lives and goals, without which life will not be easy to live, in these fast paced and highly competitive times.

That is why, I reiterate that you have to count yourself as being very fortunate if you manage to live to be a hundred, with all your faculties and abilities intact and surrounded by your loved ones, who in turn love you.

Among the rare notable ones who come to my mind, who have walked past this historic milestone, is Sir David Frederick Attenborough, the man who has earned a place for himself as the world’s best known and best loved naturalist. And, he has accomplished this, with his walking boots on! He turned a hundred on 8th May, 2026, with his smile and all his grace and charm intact.

Like the many insects he has talked about in his many books and shows, he too went through a long phase of metamorphosis, spanning a full seven decades, from being a collector of animals for the London Zoo in the early fifties, to being a Zoologist, Natural Historian, writer and the much-loved broadcaster that he eventually became.

Over these years he has been conferred with many honorary degrees and notable awards, including the Kalinga Award in 1981, that was instituted by UNESCO in the year 1952, following a donation by Biju Patnaik, the Indian politician, businessman and aviator, who served as the third Chief Minister of the State of Odisha.

This award, which was first awarded to Louis de Broglie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1921, was meant to be given to those showing exceptional skill in presenting scientific ideas to lay people, which was David’s forte. Not surprisingly, David was also knighted by the Queen in the year 1985, which earned him the title of ‘Sir.’

It is interesting to note that a man who has travelled many times around the world, touching some of its remotest corners, could not drive a car in his own country because he was never able to pass his driving test and he also never owned a television set himself, until long after he became a broadcaster on television!

Although I had read a few of his books about how he went about procuring living specimens for the London Zoo, my real experience of the joy of watching him in the dozens of documentaries he has made, came only after we procured our first television set in the early eighties. Our whole family got so quickly hooked to his mesmerising narrations that watching his weekly show was something we would never miss.