An
article entitled World’s Oldest Man,
Though Only Briefly, Dies at 111 in New York” in The New York Times carrying June 9, 2014 and Ralph Blumenthal as
the dateline and byline respectively caught my fancy and I read through the
piece.
The
man, Alexander Imich died on June 8th and he held the crown of being
the world’s oldest man for an all too brief period of 45 days; 0.11% of his
lifetime. Hence, I believe, the “…Though Only Briefly…” in the title. Yes,
Imich lived all of 111 years and a couple of months only to hold on to the
title of the world’s oldest man since April 24th this year, since
his predecessor oldest man died! That kind of made me pity Imich.
But
perhaps I have more people to pity on similar scores. Prince Charles heads the
list of such obviously pitiables, since birth a prince and not to wear the
crown yet!
But
that was a slight digression. What I wanted to argue is here that the World’s Oldest Man can never be dead. Of
course, the man who holds the title, even if only ever so briefly, can be dead,
but the World’s Oldest Man – note the
italics and upper case – can never die. Catch the obvious nuance (an oxymoron).
The
argument is simple: the title changes hands seamlessly. The moment Imich’s
predecessor, Arturo Licata died, Imich became the world’s oldest man. Even the
crown of a kingdom does not transfer so smoothly. Therefore I take issue with
the title. The World’s Oldest Man can
never die, only transfer the title.
The
title would have been better as, “The World’s
Oldest Man Changed Hands/Bodies.”
I
hope you will agree with me.
Raghuram
Ekambaram
