Shakespeare has written about the seven stages of ‘man’ but I wonder why he has not written anything regarding the three categories of senior citizens falling in the three age groups and the degrees of their auditory difficulty.
If you were to believe HoH starts anywhere between the first stages of senior
citizenship, you are wrong in generalizing because it is more an exception than
the rule. This applies to the second stage of senior citizenship as well however
with a slight difference– it takes the form of ‘selective hearing.’ In the last stage of senior citizenship HoH becomes more a rule than an exception because of the
aging process. But I am really not able to understand even at this stage of life some have sharp minds and ears belying their age! Perhaps they are the most lucky few.
Just as I was thinking my long experience has proved that my analysis and
conclusions drawn were absolutely right, my maid disproved me in the very first week she came to work. I found the less than 40 maid turning a deaf ear at my instructions day after day and when I confronted her, she confessed that she was hard of hearing. Since then I made it a point to talk to her not only from a hearing distance but also raising my volume. But what I did not succeed in
is, to keep her ‘volume’ down. A day might come when a combination of a shrill voice and a high pitch might make me HoH before I realize !
n.meera raghavendra rao
Just Li'Es 
When I went to the Neurologist in Apollo last week (to investigate my fall), the doctor placed a vibrating tuning fork near my ears and I could well hear the humming noise. But I think I could be in the initial stages of HoH!
The present generation of youngsters who listen to music on earphones with the volume turned on full will reach the last stages of HoH earlier than many of us.