68 Pages Subscription: `.1100 p.a. THE MAGAZINE FOR PRODUCTIVE AGEING April 2018 FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY Making a Social Connection, CinematicallyApril | 2018 Dignity Dialogue FIRST WORD here’s not much to do once you retire. It’s a lament heard so often that it set me surfing the internet to Tsee if skills and experience accumulated over the years can be put to use in a gainful manner. And surprisingly, there is so much you can actually do provided you get into the spirit of Huned Contractor volunteering. Not only the large metros but even the rural areas have several non-government organisations (NGOs) engaged in various social upliftment and empowerment programmes and most of them seem to be in need of experienced hands who can contribute to not only the daily administration work but also pitch in for planning new programmes. For example, I recently came across an NGO working in the field of watershed development in the mofussil areas of Pune district that was looking for retired seniors who could help them out with their training and education programmes so as to carry the message of water management far and wide. Similarly, if you are willing to travel and stay in remote places, you could help Tibetan refugees assimilate seamlessly into India at a place called Dharamsala. You can volunteer in a number of areas ranging from teaching English and foreign languages, photography and yoga to creating writing and fashion designing. This kind of work is being offered by Lha and you can check out more details on www.lhasocialwork.org. Similarly, in Gujarat’s Gandhi Ashram which serves the underprivileged, you can volunteer to provide services in the fields of women empowerment, sanitation and community media, among others. You have to commit for a period of at least a month. The organisation provides accommodation and meals. Visit www.manavsa.org for more details. If you are fond of the high hills and nature, you could sign up with Spiti Ecosphere which is engaged in creating sustainable livelihoods associated with nature and culture conservation. The organisation works with local people and volunteers who share a passion for conservation, mountain travel and adventure. And if you have a knack for organic farming, so much the better. You could even help build greenhouses. The organisation’s work portfolio is available on www.spitiecosphere.com. And if it is wildlife that interests you, well, go and help save crocodiles in Tamil Nadu by volunteering for two to five weeks. The Madras Crocodile Bank provides food and accommodation for those who want to work for the protection of reptiles and amphibians. For details, write to: [email protected]. The point is, there is no dearth of opportunities. All you have to do is make up your mind and go ahead! . April | 2018 Dignity Dialogue Dignity Dialogue April | 2018 LETTERS Praise for DD just the message we matters that you dress to beings and we deserve April 2018 VOL 23 ISSUE 04 have been waiting to suit the changes. By the to live with dignity. t gives me great hear! The avant-garde way, who says that the But beware, there are Ipleasure to hold and element in the message sari is the national dress obstacles galore. The read Dignity Dialogue. is fascinating and she of the Indian woman question is how do we That’s because it is really has put it so adroitly and and is the only apparel live with dignity when is a nice and beautiful so appealingly with her that is graceful, modest there has hardly been magazine with not only dignity intact. Change, and elegant? any clear intent on the glossy front and back as we all know, takes India has 29 states and part of the powers that covers but also crispy place from the time we be? Less said the better. thick pages inside with seven Union Territories. are born, in ourselves Each state has its own Not that the successive very comfortable font and in the universe governments in India size that makes it very concept of modesty around us. Change is a and grace where their have not formulated comfortable for senior natural phenomenon. any programmes and citizens to read. Also, apparel is concerned Yet how many of us and at the same time policies for the welfare the content inside is genuinely apply it in of the elderly, but then well-chosen and worth there is an interchange our specific lives? One of fashions among all in reality the progress reading and preserving differing view or one is not anywhere near or sharing. I eagerly look these states. Today, step away from the well- fashions in clothing have satisfactory. The benefits forward to the arrival beaten path is enough to do not reach a majority of the new issue of the become global. Fashions open the Pandora’s box. come, fashions go and of the deserving segment magazine every month. How many of us are bold of the elderly. With job Thank you, dear editor, the same fashions come enough to break the old again like everything opportunities nearer for all your efforts. barriers and face it? home diminishing, if Please keep it up! else in life. Life could be Just a week ago I read in boring without change not vanishing, mostly Dr. R S Dass the media that someone as Dr. Srinivasan points the only kid (son or E-mail: None had dared to utter that out. Isn’t variety the daughter) has to move she has forgotten how spice of life? far away from home or The Right abroad even. The result to drape a sari, drawing Shama Vijayan Message upon herself the wrath is most of the elderly are of hell. Draping a E-mail: shamatou@ forced to live alone or to r. Sheilu Srinivasan’s sari, no matter how gmail.com move into old age homes message for the D graceful and elegant the to spend the rest of their New Year, published in How do we Live apparel is, is not easy lives. the January 2018 DD and wearing it all the with Dignity? issue, is like a breath of time on all occasions is y reference is to new life! Her charming, cumbersome because the First Word cheering and inspiring M it restricts one’s published in DD, call for “change” as we movements. Today we February 2018 issue. ring out the old and are living in a busy, fast- Yes, we must definitely ring in a fresh year is paced new world and it try to be better human most refreshing and April | 2018 04 April | 2018Dignity Dialogue Dignity Dialogue Dignity Dialogue Dignity Dialogue April | 2018 05 LETTERS And the risks are high the ageing societies of construct something If some groups keep TV and Reading: the radio and reading. in living alone. Also, the world. The growth of that adds value to the destroying them, our What is wonderful is that the number of old age the elderly population society and the nation. society and the nation What’s Better? everyone has quickly homes isn’t enough, in India is a matter of A few others with will not move ahead, or the past few days adjusted to this new mode leave alone finding great concern as these disruptive ideologies remaining where it FI have been unable of entertainment. one within reach of growth rates are much later destroy the was years ago. We like to watch television on I have once again developed the lower middle-class higher than that of the property so created out a leader and erect his account of the connection the habit of reading, which seniors. The recent case general population of vengeance or due to or her statue. But the having been disrupted was once a favourite past of the childless elderly in most states. In differences in thinking. person’s popularity due to construction work. time. As I turned to my couple, the Lavates has Kerala, the population To my mind, this is a may be short-lived and This has made me realise old habit of reading books, been an eye-opener. of children in the age retrograde step. I was replaced later with that the TV has become I felt as if I had entered Iravati (79), and her group under nine has greatly disturbed when others. The appropriate an integral part of our another world. I realised husband Narayan declined whereas the the massive Bamyan thing would be to erect daily life, so much so that how much valuable time (86), had to write to population of those statue of Buddha was another monument we cannot live without it. of my life I have wasted the president of India, aged 80 years and destroyed and was in respect of the Whether we watch it or not, on TV. The joy of reading seeking permission for above has registered unable to understand new leaders without it must be ‘on’ as if it serves is certainly superior to euthanasia. The couple the highest growth what they gained. It is destroying the earlier background music. It’s the joy of watching TV. has made this unusual rate. The issue of caring like a mother killing her ones. They become going to be a whole month Reading provides food request fearing that for the elderly, and own child. I wanted to national property, a for thought and they will fall terminally ensuring their dignity see it for real, in person, part of the country’s enriches the ill.