Let me start by saying: It is not easy!

Senior citizens – let us say the senior citizen who has been successful in life and has led a healthy life and is now about 75+ years of age.

He / she is simply bored. They may or may not admit, but most of them are plainly bored. They are unable to cope up with the younger generation’s life style. They cannot understand how people can eat out 6 times in a week, rush to office without break fast, BUY NOODLES FOR DINNER from a HOTEL, and take about 10 days of sick leave in a year!

These people led a sensible life, took care of their health in their younger days, and are now leading a healthy life.

But wait. It is not so simple.

They are vulnerable to the following problems:

– Physical ailments: May not be a major crisis but not being able to see, hear, – even a little less is a big issue.

– Inability to / unwillingness to accept limitations cause by age. India is not a friendly country as far as old people are concerned.  So taking a train or a bus seems to be tough if not IMPOSSIBLE for the ‘middle’ class. Though I do argue that taking a taxi is not difficult – some of them will not listen.

– Financial frauds: there are too many financial salesmen for whom KYC (know your customer) documentation, taking the missing signatures are all too painful…so signatures get forged, cheques get stolen,….OMG the list is endless.

Problems:

the people who look after older people are suddenly NOT in a position to know how strict or otherwise they should be. Should you let a 86 year old out of a OLD AGE HOME…when he wants to go gallivanting or say ‘sorry you cannot go’.

should you let them handle their banking function – even when you realise that they had given away an extra Rs. 1600 – by giving away Rs. 500 notes instead of Rs. 100 notes?

should you allow them to overeat / under eat or tolerate their refusal to take medicines (hoping they will die if they do so!!)…

difficult situations – difficult questions – and different solutions….