the 2011 census of india found that the population of india below the age of 25 years is more than 50 of the total population bengals is about 49 and so by extension calcutta must share a similar demographic the search for that information arose from my sighting of at least three specific classified advertisements in the newspapers a few days ago an mnc was keen on recruiting retired voluntarily retired and those aged 65 years or less as senior managers going so far as to assure potential candidates office jobs clearly distinguishing such employment from field jobsas someone who has just attained senior citizenship these recruitment advertisements gave me cause for wonder in both its definitions as a noun and a verb i was amazed that a multinational company was seeking to employ senior citizens and those approaching that chronological landmark in their lives this consequently made me curious and a little doubtfulfeeling wanted againover the years i have grown used to being at the receiving end of overt politeness and gratuitous respect because of my grey hair and wrinkles not surprising when the dominant population is half my age or less i know most my age and older are unlikely to be reemployed or have adequate retirement benefits it is not surprising to be treated as the uncle to be tolerated to be mocked behind ones back or to be paid flagging attention for the dispensation of acquired wisdom and tales of nostalgia it was good to know we are wanted againthat led me to wonder where the eligible young population might be in india we have shining examples of company owners and directors aged 25 years or thereabouts surely there are enough younger people who could be senior managers in an mnc given the plethora of management institutes in the city and outside have they all gone away from calcutta to greener pastures have they outpriced themselves even for multinationals are they underqualified if one wanted to be facetious one could say that too many of the youth in calcutta have opted to be in the liberal and creative arts causing a definite lack of potential corporate managers however one telling statistic of the census says that almost 72 of this young population lives in rural bengal what are they doing there agriculture trading manufacturing retailing liberally extrapolating all this data i safely assumed that while there are more than enough young people they apparently do not meet the expected potential required by multinationals and that income opportunities exist outside the urban centres i might also assume that while there are young people they are still not mature enough to handle business for the big guys is that a consequence of having the worlds largest youth populationa spirit that does not diecalcutta has for some time now been synonymous as a retirement city something like what bangalore was reputed to be a couple of decades ago real estate food transport and general cost of living being lower