When one is already freaking out about turning 30 soon, reading a book on how to ‘stay fabulous at fifty-plus’ may not seem like an enticing idea. Writer-journalist Sudha Menon’s Feisty at Fifty, however, calms you down and leaves you part chuckling and part introspecting about all the things that come with age. The big three-oh, or the five-oh, is no big deal, Menon writes.
A breezy read, Feisty at Fifty feels more like the extension of a personal diary and exudes warmth and humour, with the occasional pinch of satire. Making the reader feel at home early on, Menon introduces the people who make her life feisty—her effervescent Amma, daughter (‘The Fledgling’), husband (‘Hassled Harry’), and the trio of spinster grand-aunts who ‘never needed no men’. Not to forget the gang of girlfriends—every woman’s lifeline.
Menon is on a no-holds-barred journey as she talks about mid-life crises, discovering things like chin hair, social media and the fear of missing out, experiments with ripped jeans, racy lingerie and hair colour, and essentially, falling in love with yourself. Some of her anecdotes could trigger deja vu in readers who swear never to become their parents, and eventually end up doing so, much to their own horror. She also does not shy away from addressing a subject that many do not—the ‘chill’ in the bedroom and the action, or rather the lack of it, in bed, as age shoots up. The changing dynamics of marriage and parenting feature prominently in some of the chapters.
“The fun part of it was writing about the circus my life has become in my 50s; everything is in a state of flux—from my hormones to my relationships,” says Menon. “The hardest part was writing about my vulnerabilities.”
Hilarious in most parts, the book occasionally takes a poignant turn when she writes about reconnecting with her mother, her father’s sudden death, love and life choices, and learning to move on after some of them go wrong. Beyond the fine lines, grey hair and fashion blues, Feisty at Fifty is, at its heart, about embracing change—accepting your body, watching your parents age, children grow up and leave the nest, or comfortably snuggling into the ‘friend zone’ with your partner.
For Menon, the book is also about rediscovering herself. “I had lost myself in the serious business of life and now I know that life need not be so serious,” she says. “It is perfectly alright to let your hair down and have the world see you as you want to be.”
FEISTY AT FIFTY
By Sudha Menon
Published by
Pan Macmillan India
Price Rs350; pages 234
