Old Age Homes - Practical Solution or Easy Way Out?

chillibreeze writer — Arpita Ghosh

Old age homes are mushrooming by the dozens all over India. Surprising that India, a country where joint family flourishes and is valued, today witnesses a different scenario. Increased rate of divorces, DINK (Double Income No Kid) couples, extra marital affairs, casual sex and what do you have? Where are we heading? How do we get to the root of these issues?

The answer is simple – we have lost our values in the pursuit of competitive, materialistic gains. In this entire race, the two most important people – our parents, who played an important role in preparing us, guiding us and doing everything possible from their end to make it happen for us, are left behind to fend for themselves in their old age. No time to listen to them, to care for them, to ask about their needs.

Every individual is entitled to be his own master. Parents have lived up to their responsibilities, never shirking away from them, but the same can’t be said about their offspring. Parents? Aah! More of a burden. The best place for them – Home for the aged. It may have been easy solution earlier but this is no longer so.

Today, it is the most practical thing to do - shift out to a home for the aged, where one can start one’s life again as an individual minus one’s parental responsibility. Says Ruma Sanyal, “My college friends and I have decided once our kids are grown up and they don’t require us any more, we will shift into a bungalow that will have a cook, a nurse and man power to take care of us in our old age. It will be just like good old college days again.” Her twinkling eyes and smiling face while she spoke got me thinking, “Brilliant idea to be living with friends and not bound by family responsibility, yet a sense of belonging.”

Imagine picking up life from where one left it, and once again think of one’s dreams - to do those things one always wanted to but could not because family came first. Be it reading, writing, watching movies, painting or gardening – there is a lot to be done. One can even get back to learning new languages or develop any other skill. In so doing, one remains mentally and physically healthy and the zest for life is always alive.

In times to come, it will be a practical solution for sure what with most of the younger generation opting for the single life or no kids at all, life for them in the silver hair days will be more enjoyable in a house full of people of same age rather than living alone.

Silver citizens can live with dignity and spend their time and money the way they wish to in the presence of their peers, enjoying every moment. Life is much more beautiful when one looks at old age homes as practical solutions. It's just a question of changing one’s perception.

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—About our writer:

Arpita says, "Life is a blank canvass, it is the colours we use to fill in that makes our canvass of life beautiful. A masters in chemistry found my calling in Media, from Radio to Print, Advertising to film making, have done it all. It is the simple pleasures of life that give me great joy - like a walk in the rain, watching the sun set n sun rise, lover of nature - that's me."

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