On a recent visit to Bangalore, I met someone who had just driven out with a group of friends to the outskirts of the city to look at an old people’s complex that was in the process of being set up. I was rather intrigued by this lady’s interest in something like this. Why, I wondered, would she even be thinking of living in an old folks’ home? Admittedly, she had lost her husband a couple of years earlier and, adamant in her refusal to live permanently with either of her daughters, she lived all alone now. However, she had been left very well off. She lived in her own home, a house conveniently close to the club where she spent a good deal of time ? either in the library or the swimming pool or playing bridge. She had several friends and led an active, interesting life. Yet, here she was, thinking of abandoning all this and moving into an old folks’ complex miles away from anywhere. It seemed inexplicable to me.
“I am not planning to move in straightaway,” she explained. “But I know that in the not-too-distant future I will not be able to live on my own in this house. Domestic help is getting more and more difficult to obtain, as are plumbers and electricians. The last thing that I want to be lumbered with when I can no longer manage is a house with all its attendant problems. Far better then to be in a one-bedroom flat where all my needs are looked after. Far better, at least, if I can find a place where there are like-minded people living. That is one reason why a group of us went to have a look at this place.”
There was a time when there was a distinct stigma attached to being in an old folks’ home. The homes that existed were dismal and shoddy. To live in one of them implied a lack of anywhere else to live and a lack of caring on the part of one’s children. But all that has now changed, not least of which are attitudes. Increasingly, the old are now reluctant to move in with their children. They are loath to give up their independence, yet do not want to be burdened with domestic problems. What they seek is comfort and convenience, the ability to live amidst people who have the same outlook on life, are on the same wavelength, have the same status in society and belong to the same generation as they do.
The response to this demand is a spate of senior citizen’s complexes that are mushrooming all over the country. They consist of well-designed attractive homes, imaginatively conceptualised, where the residents have all their needs attended to. They live independently, yet, where food, medical attention, housekeeping and companionship are concerned, free of all cares and worries. On the face of it, what could be better!
