A viral X post from Shashank Srivastava about his father has turned into an unlikely case study on what an older brain is actually capable of. Srivastava shared that his father, a 64-year-old government official in Uttar Pradesh, completed an MTech degree last month, finishing in the top 10 of his class, most of whom were roughly half his age, while working full-time and travelling close to 1,000 km a week for the job.
His father, who returned to work after retiring in 2022, currently serves as Deputy CEO at the regulatory body overseeing municipal corporations in Uttar Pradesh, a role that requires regular travel across districts. According to Srivastava, much of his father’s coursework and studying happened while he was travelling for his job rather than at the expense of it.
And the MTech isn’t where the story ends either; Srivastava says his father is now preparing to apply to the Executive Education Programme at IIM Lucknow, adding that at an age when most people look back at their achievements rather than set new goals, his father is applying for a new course.
What’s Actually Happening in a 64-Year-Old Brain Doing This
Dr Amit Agarwal, Senior Consultant of Neurology at Amrita Hospital, Faridabad, says stories like this raise a real question for neuroscience: “How much of the brain’s potential do we prematurely relinquish to age?”
His comments point to a broader idea in neuroscience around cognitive reserve and neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to keep adapting and forming new pathways well into later life, provided it continues to be challenged with genuinely new, demanding tasks rather than familiar routines. Srivastava’s father’s case, doctors suggest, illustrates that decline in cognitive function is not always as inevitable or linear as commonly assumed, particularly when an ageing brain is kept consistently engaged with novel learning.