I was thinking of the same thing, Ramu chittappa - when the sastras talk about the stages that a 'man' goes through, what about the woman then? During Grihastasrama, ok, she is the 'saha dharma chari' - assisting the husband to perform his duties. During Vaana (or vana) prastham, who knows who will go first? Is there sanyasam for the woman too?
I remember Peria thatha took aapat sanyasam just before he died. Am I right?
I think basically, the older generation should lessen their expectations & needs, be contented that they have had their life, & follow 'simple living, high thinking' - I guess this is what the Sastras ecpect us to do. (Easier said than done, hehe).

Well, God saved S & me from the Iceland volcano's vagaries - we reached Germany before it rumbled, & left after things returned to normalcy. Will post the pics soon.
One night after we went to bed, I could not sleep. That was when we had seen on TV the volcanic eruption. With bad weather forecast for the next few days. We were wondering if we would have to remain cooped up in the hotel room!
And Siddhar Swami came in my mind & told me to keep photo copies of our passports & not to keep all the money & travellers cheques in one place. This sort of jolted me.
Normally we always keep copies of the passport. We had not done it this time, as I got my passport only on the day we left. And I was keeping the passports & all the money in my handbag. Next morning, we took copies of the pp & also spread out the money in our backpack & with S. I was on the watch out that whole day - thank God nothing untoward happened.
Today S underwent the health check at Shankara Nethralaya. The eyelid correction surgery is fixed for 2pm tomorrow. Hopefully it should go without any hitch.
Gayathri