MIDWAY : The roaring forties No, I’m nowhere near 40. And yes, it’s crazy for me to write an article on this topic. But I just couldn’t help it. You might find it interesting, too. Just go ahead. Ever heard of the popular saying,” life begins after 40”? Well, I always thought it was just one of those things people say to cheer themselves up but it seems there is some evidence to support the claim. Let me explain. American microbiologist Jonas Salk came up with the all-important vaccine against polio in the early 1950s when he was at that miracle age of 40. Henry Ford built Ford Motor Company at the same age as did the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis buys his first fleet of warships. Again, you might find it surprising that English physicist Michael Faraday invented electric generator at, yes, 40! And how old was our very Tenzing Norgay Sherpa when he conquered Mt Everest? You guessed it right. Forty! Politically inclined? In 1915, as he was nearing his 40th birthday, the former British Conservative statesman, PM and Nobel prize winner Winston Churchill had to resign from his post of First Lord of the Admiralty and his political career seemed all but over. But fate had other plans in store for him. Religious? Prophet Mohammed was, yeah, 40, when he had the epiphany that he was the God’s messenger on earth. Scottish historian and political philosopher Thomas Carlyle’s “The French Revolution “, English novelist Anthony Trollope’s “Barsetshire” novels and Irish proponent of modernism James Joyce’s “Ulysses” were all published after the fortieth birthdays of the respective authors. I’m positive I’m going to start my first novel the day I turn 40. It seems to be a lucky age. Scientists, writers, mountaineers, politicians, religious leaders, entrepreneurs, anyone left? Oh yeah, explorers. Well, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan spent his 40th birthday on the way to Cape Horn, Africa. He then found and named the Pacific Ocean. Think you’re too old for any new venture? Russian writer Leo Tolstoy learned to ride bicycle at 66! I wonder what these people were doing at 24. Guess I’ll do some research into it. But to all those determined to make it big, age truly is but a number.