The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Two sides of the same coin

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 06, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Two sides of the same coin

Staff Reporter

Old age homes can be depressing or lively, depending how much you can afford

BANGALORE: Seventy-nine-year-old ex-serviceman S. Devendra drags his feet as he greets this reporter to his room on the third floor of an old age home on 7th Cross Malleswaram. Three other elderly men stay in the room, literally braving the weather as the big window in their room has broken windowpanes.

"I do not know how much is being paid every month. My three children did not want me to stay with them and they have put me here," says Mr. Devendra, who has been in home for the past three years. Thirty others are staying in it.

This dingy home, one of the oldest in the city, located just behind a community hall, has eight rooms. But the rooms have not enough space to keep the residents' belongings. They are given a cot, a bed, and a bedsheet. There are institutions that are sensitive to the needs of the elderly. One such, in the same Malleswaram area, on the 7th Main, is the Elders Enrichment Centre run by Nightingales Medical Trust. Basically a day-care centre, the elderly here are provided a friendly environment to spend in company with persons of their age between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. "The idea is to make the elderly stay positive by having enough social interaction," says the manager of the centre.

This is reflected when this reporter talks to some of the members of this centre just as they emerged from a literary session. "We talk for hours ... we crack jokes ... celebrate birthdays. We try to enjoy life and stay positive," said a former civil servant, who is one of the members of the centre. A month-long stay here entails Rs. 300 a day.

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