Ep 46: PS Srikumar: Why India’s seniors can’t be ignored

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, Welcome to Swishing Mindsets. This is Honoradha. Today I'm
speaking to PS Shri Komar. He's a senior care expert
and the founder of care Finder. He has helped over
nine thousand families navigate the complexities of elder care, creating
personalized solutions that enhance the quality of life. So today
we're going to talk about what seniors want, the trends

(00:21):
in senior care, and how the industry is shaping up
to meet these needs. Hi, Shri, how are you.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm doing great. I can't tell you how excited I
am for this session because this topic has kind of
last nine years. I've been breathing this topic day in
India out so it's an amazing thing for me.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Well, I'm very excited because you know, we hardly get
to hear about you know, these topics first of all,
and also somebody who's an expert on this, you know,
to get an entire overview of what is happening in
this sphere. Really, so why don't we start with why
don't you tell us how you got into this?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Okay? See, actually, I think most of us we've got
into the senior space have gotten because they've had something
to do with it, right, And I'm not an exception.
I had no clue what the senior space was and
about you know, ten twelve years back, my mother went
through dementia and I was set. That time, I was

(01:18):
in Delhi. I was the chief operating officer at one
of the largest global HR companies, and you know, these
changes suddenly caught me a you know, totally off guard
and we had no clue what is to do. So
we came back to Cheney and that was my first
trist with what the requirement was. It's more from a
health and health care side, but the context to it
was very interesting because you know, every time that we

(01:40):
had to be in the hospital, when she had to
be admitted to the hospital, I used to spend the
nights in the hospital and in Apollo, what happens is
they give you a lounge. You're not allowed to stay
with the patient, right, And in the lounge there would
be so many people like me who had their father,
their brother or their mother, some senior who had been
admitted and they were here and we started talking. And

(02:03):
those days, your WhatsApp and things were still not very prominent, right,
It wasn't even there so we all used to you know,
keep in touch, and then we used to mail each other,
so they used to go back and after the discharge,
but we started and that was the first cohesive group
that formed, saying, hey, we used to have a platform
where we shared problems, right, and we said what would

(02:24):
you do? And then people started extending there would be
somebody from Dubai. So I think that was the first thing.
And when I came down, I said, hey, listen, this
looks like an area which needs a lot of, you know, intervention.
I absolutely had no clue. I didn't know how to
navigate through this complexity, which hit me. So that was
the start point for me. I said, sometime, you know,

(02:45):
I would get into this, you know, this area, and
I will see what best I could do. And then
I fome sadly for my mother passed away, and then
I forgot about this idea I had. I continued with
whatever I was doing, but the other people in the
groups telling me, hey, listen, now that in your case,
the problem is kind of sorted. I wouldn't say it
was a very good way of getting that sorted, but

(03:07):
they're saying now that but but we are all still
in that area. Why didn't you help us? So finding
small small things. It started as a very you know,
small consultative kind of stuff for them, pro bono. Hey
where can I find this for my mother? Can you
suggest where I can find the diapers at a lower price?
Or you know, how do I redo my toilet? This
is how it started off, and it started getting very interesting,

(03:29):
and in twenty fifteen I decided to take a plunge.
I started my focus on the senior care more as
a feel good factor in addition to what I was
doing as business. But under that, believe me, this took
engulf me completely within no time. You know, I had
inquiries pouring and I had problems. People wanted to discuss,

(03:51):
solutions people wanted to have. So I said, I need
to put a you know, a formal framework to this
whole thing. So what was incidental became main work for me.
So that is how we moved into this space. But
looking back at nine years, the kind of things that
I have experience in this industry, the kind of people
that I have met, I would still that I'm not

(04:12):
even scratched the surface, because this is as huge as
the IT industry or whatever. Because people are getting old,
but the number of people who are around this, whether
it's could be a caregiver, whether it's kind to be
a business which is targeting in them, or whether it's
going to be the person who wants options. Many people
actually wanted somebody to help them out right saying hey,

(04:34):
I have this kind of a requirement, but you know,
can I have somebody to talk to? Then finding people
The journey has been amazing. In the last nine years,
we've handled more than twenty projects. But I'm saying projects
you take you know, one or two projects every year.
So right from you know, partnering with India's first Conferences

(04:55):
and Exhibitions company in the elder space, you can you'd
be amazed that there was a conferences and Exhibitions comempany
in the space called which did amazing work.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, I came across that after her talk at where
you gave a top I looked it up very interesting.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
And that brought me closer to because they're The idea
was to bring people who are serving the elders. See,
our normal thing is only the health and health care, right,
but actually there is so much of happiness and joy
and freak out things that the elders do. So we
had to bring all this together. In some of the exhibition,
the excision is huge, you know, so identifying. Suddenly somebody

(05:32):
came up and said they have a travel for the elder.
Somebody would come up and said, hey, we have something
interesting which is new. I mean they were games, this
company which was actually curating traditional games for elders to
We're looking at table tennis and Karen for a hand
and eye dexterity. But there was this company which came
out with your snakes and ladders and and the kind
of joy that the senior sad when they were playing. Right,

(05:55):
it became it was so that time just ran and
even today, actually today I I'm helping. I'm heading a
company setting up services for the seniors, you know, the
senior living. But there's so much happening at sector that
as we probably talk along, I can say how exciting

(06:16):
it is, you know, a time for the seniors away
from this usual cliches. Ai'm old, What do I do
the board? There is so much and today many of
the seniors don't have the time. They really don't have
the time.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
They're busy, absolutely, they're very busy. Yeah, yeah, And what
you said, you know, it's the sector is booming, like
the IT industry. That's so nice.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, I would say in a very positive way. I
would tell that in a positive way because, yeah, because
India as a country is you know, is relatively young.
But then if you look at the population of seniors
that we have, it is bigger than many of the
European countries. Only the population of elders that we have
is bigger than the combined population of companies like Greece

(06:56):
or you know, UK. Shortly, I'm saying, so for the
global people know there's a huge audience that they find
in India to whom products or services can be curated
and they're focusing on this market in a significant way.
I've had the opportunity to interact with a lot of people.
So just just to give you a flavor of this
whole thing, if you've taken any of the ads that

(07:18):
are coming recently, right where there's going to be the
Cadbury ad where there's an old lady who wants a
young guy to help but it does nothing. But what
happens is because he has done nothing, it actually saves
us from a particular Yeah, or there is this you know, uh, swiggy,
because elders order much of the things that they would
be stingy. They love to eat, they love to spend times.

(07:39):
They add of a guy craving for a single jam
and how the orders or a set of elders getting
together for a cricket match create creating that this ruckers
and so this this space has become so enjoyable and
a lot of people have started focusing on this particular space.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, and I like that, you know, the elderly population
is more visible now, right, Yeah, that's the thing. And
I'll just read out from the LinkedIn post, you know,
which you've written on so like this topic. Like, you know,
we were discussing what we talk about today, and I
said that, you know, I want to talk about what
seniors want because you know, what I realized from your
last talk is that they know what they want. And

(08:18):
with my limited involvement in you know, the senior space,
I can also see that, you know, they're very opinionated,
and they're traveling, they have a voice. They are fun people,
you know, so like you said, they love playing games,
they love doing traveling everything reading. So you know, I'll
just read out from here. You said that in a
few years, India's senior population will contribute to twenty to

(08:40):
twenty five percent of consumer spending. For every rupees five
spent in India, one will be attributed to a senior.
The sixty plus population accounts for twenty five percent of
banking deposits. Right, So this is huge and it's a
very vibrant, lively generation. Which is a gender. I mean

(09:00):
that you know, seniors gon from sixty to ninety beyond, right,
and all of them are contributing. They all very bright individuals,
so they have a lot to contribute, and they have
a lot of gift to the economy and to the
people around us. So they are the decision makers. Right,
you will agree with that, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think
you want yeah, Okay.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
To just add on, is that you know, there's a
normal cliche it says that you know, Indians live poor
and die rich. I think that is going away now, yeah,
with the new generation of elders. Say I'm saying, I'm
talking quite clearly the new generation of the elders. If
you define sixty as the senior age as it is
normally put in, it's it's hardly the elder age, correct,

(09:43):
So if I Yeah, hardly. So if I look at
you know, age is not a criteria anymore, and I
would as I was talking to you sometime back. You know,
today's sixties are the forties of yester years, and so
the eighties are the sixties of yester years. Right, so
they want to beat the rhetoric. They love to travel, okay,
other than traveling for taking care of the grandchildren, as

(10:04):
it was normally perceived. They like a good life. They
like eating out, they like meeting with people. They like
pursuing hobbies. I'm sixty one, okay, but I started karaoke singing.
I realized that, you know, hey, what is there and
it's start singing something which I was holding on to
myself for a long time. I've started doing that. They
pursue hobbies and music, art plants. Reunions are getting more popular.

(10:29):
I don't know if you've heard. So many reunions now
are surfacing where a lot of people come together. They
travel globally around to meet with their you know, the
people whom they studied with and they shared their growing
up years with.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and marketing such okay.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, and I'm saying it's it's an extravagance. It's no
more that you know, you you talk something, I talk something.
These programs have a you know, they have somebody who's
doing the programs. They have an outsourced person. They have
an event when for doing the unions now and you know,
so the marketing gurus is going back to what I'm saying.

(11:06):
If you'll take any if you just google and say
marketing gurus on seniors, Almost all the marketing gurus and
the housho of the advertising and marketing uh you know
area have said that if a company or a business
is not focusing on this segment, it is at the
risk of losing a huge business opportunity. That goes back

(11:26):
to what I was talking to you about. And also
there's a lot of change, right I know, I can't
I'm from Tama Nadu, right, so you can relate it
to the other places. See, the retro is no more
yours than not Gndesala. It is ill to the extent
even a Rahman is becoming a retro now. So the
definition of retro is changing, right, So the choices are

(11:47):
more current. It's not like that very very very old songs.
They are still popular, They're still wonderful, but they are
no more the retro they are. It's like, you know,
a definition of old. It's like the old young old
old old old. That's how the definition is right. And
to answer a question of what you know the seniors want,
you just Google today. I did this before this program.

(12:07):
I just wanted to read out what really kind of
came out. If you Google saying what do today's seniors want?
To answer it, Google itself through through AI, it itself
throws up saying today's seniors, what are seniors looking for?
You'll get the following definitions. They're looking at safety, They're
looking at good health and wellness. They're looking at social interaction.

(12:28):
They're looking at access to quality healthcare. They are looking
to manage finances better. They want comfortable living arrangements. They
want transportation options and travel, you know, various travel options,
opportunities to maintain their independence and engage in meaningful activities
including hobbies and community involvement. So if you look at

(12:49):
I mean, this is what the Google itself throws up,
kind of think this is something that you know, breaks
the whole thing of saying, hey, what do elders want?
Do they want? You know, medicines. They want helpcare, Yeah,
they want fun, and they're saying, hey, listen, I would
like to come out, and so I want to just
relate once. One experience that I've had is when I

(13:11):
was also involved in auditing the daycare centers and the
old age homes funded by the government of India. Right,
so when you go to the daycare, sentays you you
will Actually I've gone down. I've gone on to the
rural areas. I'm not talking about the urban areas. If
I go there, I see I see a whole lot
of people coming in and there's so much of camaraderie, fun, laughing,

(13:33):
and then one person pulling the other things. All this
laughter us. I mean till six o'clock, till you have family.
People come says, why should I wait TI six o'clock.
I enjoy it. Now I'll go back and I'm seeing
that togetherness is what I think. It's the biggest thing
that people are looking forward. If I ever see what
connection per absolutely, someone someone to meet, someone to talk to,

(13:54):
someone to exchange ideas. So this is getting more and
more interesting. And two with avenues like you know, the
social media, okay, really opening up opportunities to connect with
somebody who've lost such years. But there's so much of
excitement when I know I have a person. I have
a person who's eighty and she's so she's extremely convocent

(14:15):
on social media. She tabbles with the iPad like a
baby with a toy, right, and she goes. She's so excited.
Her hobby is finding and connecting with her classmates. If
she's eighty, should have done you know, her schooling almost
about seventy years, that's right, six seventy years. And she

(14:36):
has collected you know, almost they've connected to almost about
twenty five thirty people and they communicate regularly. Some of
them are so I connect to AA, connects to B.
And then we all come together and then we have
these school days times. It's amazing times that they've had.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yeah, so why don't we take these one by one?
You know, you said that the one is senior living, right,
you're in what is senior living? So maybe we should
start with that, like what is? Because I know that
a lot of people are looking for senior living centers
where you know, you book a flat or a room
or a studio apartment or something like that. But a

(15:13):
lot of people have seen that. You've also been emphasizing on,
you know that most people want to live in their
own homes and make it safe. So, you know, could
you tell us your take.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
On that good. I think you've said the context beautifully.
Senior living doesn't mean leaving you know, outside at home.
It is living in an institution or living by yourself. Right,
So let us take these two separately as two separate topics.
If I'm going to be living in my own house,
the biggest you know thing that one is, I'm familiar
with the surrounding. I don't want to get out from it.

(15:44):
But then I want to make my house very comfortable
for me to live in. So today there is so
much that has come in that so much as it
happened that you know, it gives you all the benefits
of living in a senior community. Right. If you're looking
at safety today, you have right from a government scheme
you have in in cases. You know, in Tamlado you
have this scheme called bundle where you know the police

(16:06):
you can tell it. Ryme. So I'm above seventeen and
I'm living alone. Once in two days or three days,
they do a beat around your house. They come and
see if you're fine and everything is taken care of today,
there is you know food. If I'm talking about various aspects,
what would go why would person go to a retirement community?
If you're looking at food today, what is happening is
that you know, right from a low potassium, low sodium,

(16:28):
you know, to specialize options that people have right to
the cheat food that they want that you know, the
poories and the thing they also having. They would love
to cheat. I mean elders love to. I mean the
kind of uh, you know, fun and the glow on
their face when they say something that they are forbidding.
The forbidden fruit is very very very very attractive to them. Right,

(16:48):
so they have this cheat cheap day. But by and far,
you know, the food today they can they don't have to.
You can't say you don't have to say that I
need to hire a cook. People are forming groups where
they discuss saying, hey, I took it from the skaterer.
The skater is good. So they're highly opiniating, opinionating the
whole thing. Okay, I will go ahead with this because
because exit my friends said, and you know, I have

(17:09):
tasted food in their house it's good. So food is
becoming you know, easy to access, and I'm talking more
in the urban centers to slowly go to the you know,
semi urban centers and soall and so forth. The third
area is you know, the living comfort. When you're talking
about today, today gadgets have come in where the train

(17:30):
specifically focused on elders. We're sitting in your chair, or
you just stepped out of the house. The biggest thing
I've seen my neighbor do is, you know, often keep
pulling the lock on the door for five times to
see if the door has been locked properly. Right, So
you have gadgets that lock your horse. You have got
gadgets today that opened the door. We have gadgets where
sitting and you can switch off the fan, lights, your TV.

(17:52):
Everything has become easier. Then you have lights that guide
you moment you put your foot down. There are sensor
lights that guide you from the bed to the bathroom.
I mean, I'm seeing life has become so much comfortable.
Is only that people many people are not aware what
you know really is available for them. And that is
why I keep telling them, or keep looking at the papers,

(18:13):
looking look at exhibitions that come in for the space
and you'll know what is really happening in this space.
There is certainly and you know, living again. The next
area is held today. I mean, I'm not talking about
the standard caregiving organizations. They are there to hire nurses.
But the question today is the government has come out
with so many initiatives that you can say, hey, I
don't want to pay so much for a person whom

(18:34):
I just want as an assistant at home. So even
that option, you can choose the caregiver at your home,
or you can say I want a person who can
come and hook for me for just a few hours
and go. The government itself has introduced this number called
one four five sixty seven, which is actually you can
call them and ask them any questions. This is available
in most of the cities. Right you can call for

(18:56):
a nursing, you can call for you know, anything like that.
Back to the topic of health you also have today.
You know, one of the biggest challenges that elders face
face is typically would the biggest challenge is the mental
health issue, right boarder Loneliness. Yeah, So today there are
organizations which do pro bono work, fabulous pro bono work,

(19:18):
or there are paid organizations which do work. I'm associated
with an organization called where we give time to elders
right today, options that are available where people will register
with us as beneficiary. It's completely a probone organization where
it's always they always send people in a you know,
in two not just one person. So if there's a lady,

(19:40):
then two women will go the The idea being that
you know, you deflect any kind of a slightly a
political question that comes on the family and all that
they'll be able to deflect it and make it more lively.
Right there are elders who love to sing, so we
go sit with them sing. So I'm saying these are
all options that are have come up. Yeah, and then
you have a buddies stuff you can see. Fine, and

(20:01):
I want to go for a you know, I want
to go for a doctor with it, or I have
to go for a you know, I have to go
for a music program, you know, or I have to
go I have to travel today today there are paid
services will a company, they'll come and these are very fine.
I mean, you have to go by the organization. You
have to so people like us prayed. I told you

(20:23):
about the nine thousand families that we have worked with
are where people come to us specifically, we customize a
solution for them. It's not like one schuf it's all
because the needs can be similar, but they will not
be the same. The social background, you know, the outlook,
you know, how pers friendly it is, all these you
know differs. There's so much happening, you know, when you want.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
To needs that they come to you for. Is it
like just senior living or is it like we need
to travel?

Speaker 2 (20:49):
What?

Speaker 1 (20:49):
What are the kind of needs and what are the
organizations that are working in this space?

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Very very good question. What are the needs? Essentially? You
know most of the time then needs that they come
out for is you know, care needs saying that you know,
I you know, my wife is not well and I
need a person to care. So care forms a very
big part. But what we do is we talk to
them and we find out their background. Now, if we

(21:17):
find that, you know, they don't have a support system
at all, I mean no friends or no they're in
a new in a place, and then you know, the
primary caregiver is asked fragile or you know, because we care,
we look at the primary caregiver more than the patient
in these cases, saying what happens if that person is
not well? So we give them alternative suggestions. Many of

(21:38):
them have come. I've actually gone to assisted living facilities.
They did not come to us for that at all.
So we look into a situation. We have a team
of people, we talk that and we have various case
studies that we've done, be saying hey, what is the
nearest case to this and what is that we had suggested?
So many times have come for us for care. The
second area is saying that, hey, my son is graduating

(21:59):
in the un US, I want to go for the
graduation ceremony. I don't think it's you know, safe to
leave my parents. Or I want to take a holiday.
Where do I leave my mother? Where do I leave
my father? The short stay facilities today, there are a
lot of organizations which give you elder care short space,
which means you know, your health is taken care of
and every morning they'll connect FaceTime to the you know,

(22:22):
children or the primary caregivers and the elder can talk
and saying hey, I'm fine. They can connect with them
on a datiay basis of one week.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Really nice. Yeah, would you do you recall which organizations
too many?

Speaker 2 (22:34):
If you look at you know, there are organizations like Athulia,
which I do that. There are you know, quite a
few organizations. I mean today if you look at Chennai,
there are a lot of organizations which are in the
co living space for elders and they offer this kind
of facility. Now there are Now the problem gets a
little compounded. Let's say if the person has an issue

(22:57):
health issue, the person has either with dementia or person
is you know, rehab and needs continuous support. So organizations
like Kites, organizations like Hamsa Rehab which is part of
Kaveri Hospitals. You know, all these organizations. Kites is a
part of Moneypoal, you know group and all these organizations

(23:18):
essentially give you that short stay saying hey you're going
for a week ten days, your parents are very sick,
will take it. Or there are the other organizations where
they say hey we'll do a short stay pace sage.
It's like a hotel, you come six, but you get
those regular food. It also acclimatizes the elder with that
kind of a living, you know, and there are many
elders who have gone gone into a senior living after

(23:39):
they've experienced it. They would have had a lot of issues.
Prior to they would have had their own mindsets about
these but after they've gone for a short pasit, they've
actually moved into these places because they find, oh there
are people at my age. You know, I'm sitting alone
at home. Here there are people, and people don't want
to come back. I mean that I know cases. I
know this elderly lady in Bangalore who says she listened.

(24:02):
The children want it back. She says, no, I'm very happy.
Please don't call me back. I'm very happy and I'm
leading my life here. They watch movies, you know, the
kind of movies that they want to watch with their peers.
So you are forming a peer group, you're forming your
opinions are more with you know, like minded people and
that that's what you kind of enjoy. So these are

(24:24):
and they travel together to traveling again. You ask me
about living right, So traveling together many of them today.
There are travelers companies like care Voyage, There are there
is elder World, there are companies which specialize on in Bangalore.
There are Silver Talkies which is actually a community. It's
an online community which works with works on programs curitive

(24:46):
programs for elders all these people do specific programs for elders,
travel programs or elders. Like recently some set of people
when too specsis stand. So what happens is all that
photos the videos of they're fun and see. They don't
have to take the travel at the same pace as
and ngster takes. Their tastes are so different. They have

(25:07):
it at a more leisured space. And I was talking
to somebody from Alastcar Tours and that guy very clearly
said he said, I don't want the youngsters because he says,
the youngsters backpack if you're on a cruise. He says.
The elders spend, They enjoy life, they go to a massage,
they take they take the theorepeutic things. I'm seeing they
are spenders. Elders are spenders. They are becoming spenders. That

(25:28):
is why you said, you know, people are very happy
to receive receive them.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah, wonderful. I want to go back and talk about,
you know, if you want to, you know, manage your
own residents and live at home, what are the things
that are available, Like you mentioned you know earlier on
before the call that you know there are stair lifts
and step up workers, hooys, et cetera. I think there's
a lot of material also, you know, for flooring and
a lot of things that you know, you've talked about

(25:55):
in the past. Yeah, you know what can one do
if you want to live at home?

Speaker 2 (25:59):
Okay, So I'll take it two ways. One is how
do I manage my home? And second one is what
will go into the home? Right starting from managing my home,
the basic thing is today today many people want to
they're living in cluttered spaces. Okay. The biggest thing that
is happening in the senior living now is there are

(26:20):
warehouses which store residentials. It starts from there saying, hey,
these are things which are very sentimental about. These are
things which I don't know I may want. These are
things my children have left behind them carrying them because
I don't have I don't have space. But way do
I put so today? The first biggest opportunity to come
in for seniors is the uh, you know, warehouses that
they have. Whatever they don't want can be parked in

(26:43):
a warehouse, which means they can unclutter their house. So
uncluttering is the first thing that they should do, because
they should have a lot of walking space, because a
fall normally, they say, is the start of a lot
of things, So how to fall. It's the biggest challenge
that this addresses. The second one is you have designs,
furniture designs that are actually for the elders today. Designs

(27:05):
of the furniture design are you know, do I need
to sit in an upright position? Do I do I
need to sit? Because the recliners or the sofas, the
various sink and sofas are not the ones which are
very comfortable for the elders right They have a huge
problem sitting and getting out of it. So today right
from you know the uh uh you know urban ladder,
then you have you know, various places which where you

(27:27):
can actually can actually google on a Maazon and elder
friendly furniture. So I'm saying you have that furniture. The
third thing is that many people would have purchased houses
which have glossy tiles or the verrified tiles which are
which could be very slippery right today without affecting the

(27:48):
texture of those tiles or without affecting the look and feel.
There are pains that you do on the tiles which
give you the anti skid grip you don't have to
necessarily put anti skid tiles if you already done your
house up right. So these are advantage and these are
very very good specifically on stairs when you're climbing upstairs.
This isn't then you ask you ask me the next

(28:09):
very important thing are you know as elders age, many
of them would have you know, the knee problems or
you know, climbing up problems. Stairlifts have come. Stairlifts are
small things where you sit and it takes you, you know,
up it. They are winding stair lifts that are stair
lifts which goes just straight and so on and so forth.
You have players like Nibow which have come with homeless

(28:33):
where you don't have to biggle huge shaft You actually
can put in a lift from the ground floor to
the first floor which are small you know, circular lifts
which will you know, transport you from the first floor
soup making climbing, you know, becomes very very easier. Uh.
Then you have as I told you, I mean other
than all those you have gadgets you have uh you know,

(28:55):
gadgets which come with those larger even micro a ones
come come with you know, discriptive so that you're able
to you know, plug you know. Actually the otherwise reading
a microwave is you know, this is quite this thing.
You have phones which have come up which are white
calling phones where you can choose the numbers that you
want to receive phones phone calls from. They are large

(29:17):
numbers built in with emergency you know modules. The other
thing is today from a safety perspective, there is this
company called Kubo Care and Bangalo And I'm no, I'm
not promoting any company. I'm just giving an example so
that you need to be Yeah, there are these companies
which have come out with sensors for falling because one
of the biggest thing is, you know, I'm falling, what

(29:38):
do we do after a fall? How can I prevent
a fall? Right now, companies have come out with sensor
and these are not very expensive, right these are about
fifteen K they're not very very expensive. Kind that we're
talking about where you install it on the bed. It
zones the bed into two. Is there our husband and wife,
let's says he left side person has not moved for

(29:59):
the last one and is the trigger if you're not
if you're lying in motion, if you're not shifted at all,
and so it goes to that minute details and then
it rings and it gives you an alarm to the nearest.
I mean the numbers that you've kept in emergency numbers.
If you've had a fall. It automatically calls up deep,
it presses a panic button, It reaches out over a

(30:20):
phone to people, so so many things. And I said
told you the sensor lights. Their lights automatically go on
the moment you put your foot down, so that you
have a guided one of the very very standard basic things.
But it's very very necessary for elders because see, living
your diabetes is fine. Most of Indian elders have diabetes,

(30:40):
but low sugar is far far more dangerous than a
very high shore. So you're glycemia or whatever. Normally, when
you get up from the bed, you start feeling a
bit guilty giddy. You know, that is the time where
handbars next to your bed make a lot of difference.
You just grab onto them. Today, for people who are
not able to lift themselves up from them, there are

(31:01):
you know, thing grab bars in the form of handles
you can carry, just like the ones you find in
a metro or a bus where you can just hold
on and then move your body up so another. I
can't tell you how many there are so many things
on this now if people want it's like, you know,
you can actually write a book on what is available.
You know, how to make your home a senior friendly home,

(31:23):
what should go into it post COVID. In fact, I
have what I've noticed in some of the houses post
COVID is they've done away with this traditional sofas, so
they have a nice dining table with very comfortable chairs.
So there is a spacing between people. There is their newspapers.
Most of the life is around the dining tables, so
they have a couple of chairs alone where when they

(31:46):
have guests and things like that, they put it on
over there. There are pet care organizations. Where you have
a pet, you can call up these organizations. They come
and take care of the because many of the pet
therapy is something which is very very common within there.
They feel connected, They feel emotionally a lot better when
they have a pet.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
With them living alone I'm sure, yeah, not alone.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Then let's say elders, two people both love animals. They
then what happens is, you know there are agencies today
which just do the pet carriages called. It's not a
veterinary doctor. There's a lot of difference. They come, they
train the pet, you know, to the way you want it.
And so it's become a very exciting kind of world.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Yeah, very exciting. Just inst you're not even aware of
all these things.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
Yeah, yeah, I spent nine years, right, I mean, I'll
give you other examples. I've worked with somebody who has
brought in the concept of swivel seats. What are these
FIVEL seats. Seats are in your car. The seats come
out one and eighty degrees. You sit and then see
because if you have you know, if you have osteoprocess
or if you have any of those issues and you're

(32:52):
not able to enjoy your travel, these seats, you know,
they come out, they take you. Then you rotate the
seed back into the car and you start. So in
Bangalore you have this company which is called Kickstart Cabs,
which actually provides car services for the physically challenged and
the elders. And then you know, you have this company

(33:13):
turn Plus, which makes these fable seats. Today there are companies.
If you say I have a gradient in my house
which is just say twenty millimeters, but it can cost
me a trip. There are companies which just make you
a gradient, you know, step up for this that twenty centimeters.
There's so much that has come up today.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah, and it's so solution oriented.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah, whatever the problem, somebody's thought of it, Are they
ready to think of it?

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Absolutely so, because it's a huge market. No, it's a
huge market. So you're not doing it, and it's no more.
I mean it's a nice feeling to say that I'm
helping an elder, but it's more things saying, hey, I
have one hundred and twenty thousand people in this thing,
so will it make a good business sense for me?
So what happens is products get innovated into that space

(33:59):
and they only get better with time. If I do
it tomorrow, somebody is doing it much better. You know. Actually,
another I've had feared, We've done you know, so many
things different. You know, we've connected with Phillips, We've connected
with because people travel abroad, when they travel for six
months or seven months to stay with their children, the
biggest problem that they have is they don't know how

(34:20):
to use the gadget state. So in India, you know,
we are spoilt. I don't know about the rest of
the places. We are totally spoilt because we have Adobe
vala who comes picks up your clothes, irons your clothes,
gives it back to it, comes, you know, every every
week and does that. So you're not really bothered. But
when you go abroad and you suddenly say, hey, I
have to iron my clothes, how will I earn It's

(34:40):
very expensive. You can't give it outside. So we have
done classes for we have connected with companies. We have
actually and it's so much fun. We have actually done
programs where a person knows how to iron, you know
how to iron the clothes, and people have written back
to us saying, hey, thank you so much. My son
finds me certainly more useful, he says, Mama, have also

(35:00):
learned that. So they're saying that, you know, it's a
pride when they go back and say.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
Okay, age, now you're finally learning that skill.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
What age at seventy people are fit as a fiddle. Yeah, yeah,
fiddle and there's some.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
Thing that you didn't do when you were younger. Yeah,
you're learning it.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Now, absolutely, And people have actually, you know, people may
say it's what is there nothing new. People have actually
we have done programs. We have actually trained people on
using Google maps. How do you walk using a Google map?

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Yeah, okay? And how do you keep your eyes down
so that you don't triple fall? That's funny because you
just don't keep the phone in your hand. So I'm
seeing these are all becoming classes. Now, how do I
make salons? Okay? For a man living alone? See, you're otherwise.
You know, it's normally a lady who cooks, and then
you know he suddenly feels handicapped if that lady is
not there. There are people who do a program and

(35:50):
how do I make my own salad? Okay? There is
this lady who is eighty years old and she does
programs on It's called opus Opos one part one shot,
which is you know pressure coca cooking, right, how do
you put everything? It makes a pungol, it makes a samber?
How do you do this? And what quantities you put on?
Seeing there is so much to explore. I mean it's amazing.

(36:13):
If I say I'm doing a one month program, you
know all that you want to do that you want
it to do, people will come in. People will start
coming in that.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
They have disposable income. They have that that those are
the two things you need, right, and you have an
interest in all of us. Actually, there is so many things.
When you're young, you're actively working. There are a lot
of things that you want to do, but you can't,
like learn a new language. You said you're doing carre, Okay,
there's no time for it at that time. I'm sure
you're still very busy.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
You know.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Still, this is the time, you know when you want
to try out these things.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Absolutely And if you don't say you you still you
feel that you know you have it in you. There
are companies which actually do your They do jobs for
people about sixty. Bangalore has this company called Wisdom Circle,
which job they do jobs for elders and it's so nice.
And today, imagine you're into a processed job. All my
job is going to be to process bills. Right though

(37:11):
everything is manual, somebody has just still check it for
the audit purposes. Now, the youngsters will lose interest for
a period how long they'll keep looking at the bills.
There are a set of people they saying, okay, turn
it to my home. Oh the weekend. Now, there is
a program called the weekend warriors where companies are sending
the you know, expenses and vouchairs to a person's house.
The lady sits through the Saturday Sundays for them. They're

(37:32):
saying every day as a Saturday Sunday for them. So
they sit over the weekend and Monday it's turned out
and the heacha then, you know, does the reimbursement. So
elders have become you know, just to rephrase what I
was saying earlier, they also are repurposing themselves. Elders are
repurposing themselves to enjoy life. And just imagine, you know,
I might have earned about just five thousand rupees, but

(37:54):
the joy it gives me. So I think I'm going
to digress here and tell you you know, a story
right which which is very interesting to me. This typically explains,
you know, the mindset of an elder person and you know,
the qualities are the attributes that I see in many
of them. So when we started doing our work in
the senior care the very good friend of mine was,

(38:17):
I mean, you do it like inuring to tell everybody,
You tell your first, you tell your friends. I'm doing
this and if there's something so a very good friend
of mine called me and said, hey, my mother wants
to meet up with you. So I called his mother
and said, and I'll come and Dandie, I'll come and
meet up with you. She said, no, no, I'll come. And
she kept interesting saying I'll come and meet up with you.
I didn't want you to come here. I want to
come there. I said, fine, come to our office. So

(38:37):
she came to our office, and she had a very
different requirement. She said, you know, Sheikma, my grandson, my
only grandchild, he's going to the US to do his
MS right. I want to do a very special gift
for him that he will remember and he will cherish.
So I want you to advise us on what is
the gift. See it was a revelation for us because
till then her thoughts were all on ward, do you

(38:59):
if gift the elders? The reverse flow is never thought
to us.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
What can you do?

Speaker 2 (39:04):
What can they do for somebody else? So what we
did we thought And that was the time where I
was very strongly, you know, prophesessing on digitization of records
with elders. And I told her, Anti, why didn't you
digitize the records of your grandson it'll be very useful
for him. So she said, what is the digitization? So
she teld me explain. So she wanted to know everything,

(39:25):
So I told her to take his medical records. You
take his key educational records, you make them into a
soft copy. You give it to them in a in
a pen drive, so that whenever he wants he can
go through that, and when he's not well in the
US or whatever, you know, he can just show the
doctor the document. Say. She was quite convinced on that,
but that was just a start. What started off as
a pen drive ended in a hard disk drive. Because

(39:49):
what had happened was she would come with one requirement.
Every one day she would come and say, listen, that
exercise was open. For quite some time. She in fact,
she asked us, why didn't you take him and get
a suit? I said, what will I do? I say,
this no value edition I'm going to do except that
taking him to the tailor and getting a suit done,
which you can do yourself. But this what started off,
you know, a very very small thing. She came back

(40:10):
to us suddenly saying, hey, what if you know I'm
not there when he comes back or he gets married,
there I'm not able to travel. And then she said,
I want specific wedding songs to be done, and she says,
I wanted my voice to be recorded for my grandson
so that he can hear it. So everything went on right.
So we had to legally download, we had to connected
with people where we could legally download another. I don't

(40:32):
know if many of the audience that you have will
be familiar with another swims and you know, the marriage music.
So we got all that. We got all that done. Okay,
now the sun there is. My friend came to me
independently without his mother's knowledge, and he said, she, I
want you to do help for me. He says, these
are the pictures that I have of my son and
my mother, right, I want you to digitize. You have

(40:53):
to put them all into a folder rather than you know,
putting it together. So we did that. Then his wife
came and said, I want all his report cars. So
she said, you know, I'm so amused to say that
today is a pittspil any thing and he's going for MS.
But when I read that his teacher said that he
can identify numbers one to fight. It brings the joy
and I'm able to relive. So it started adding on

(41:15):
and adding on, and then you know, it became a
hardest drive. Then we told her that just don't give
it like that. Create a curiosity. So we arrange for
a date between the grandson and the grandmother because he
was leaving for the US. So we said, why didn't
you go for a date with your grand She was excited.
She said that means, you know, nobody else is there.
It's just him and me, because I've never got time

(41:36):
with my grandson. We said, no, it's only you and
your grandson, okay, but she said no, no, I want somebody.
Then I said, don't worry. One of my staff will
be somewhere in an insipid corner just in case you
want any help you. So we got the hardest drive,
wrapped up everything, and oh the lunch, Chanson and grandmother
were exchanging pleasantries, and then at the end of the

(41:56):
meal she insisted on paying, and then she gave the
grandson the a beautiful gift, a gift, so she said
you open it and see. So the grandson opened it
and he saw hard descrive. We didn't know what was inside.
He thought it was a hard dist drive. He said
it was the most useful thing for me, I know,
and now I can record all my I can take
all the music and all that with me. But she

(42:17):
didn't have much of knowledge and what they would use
it for. But she knew the things had God she
she then then she says said, no, you go put
it onto your laptop and say so she we taught
her to, you know, was that curiosity in that guy?
So all this winter in the night. What happened was
the next morning she called us and she was crying

(42:37):
on the phone. She was sobbing, and you know, the
first feeld was, hey, did the disk not open for me?
That was the biggest problem. Did the disk not open?
Was there any problem on that? So I called my
friend and said, hey, your mom called his crying. He said, no, no, no,
she's very happy. Let her talk. I don't want to
spoil the suspense. So me and mcauleys were sitting, you know,
we didn't know what was going to land upon us.

(42:58):
But then she called and what she s, you know,
made a huge difference to us. She said, shemar, you know,
ever since my grandson went to the you know, he
had gone to h he was in ninth and tenth
he used to go for these classes for his engineering.
We hardly used to get time with it. Eleventh and
Twelvey was preparing continuously for the you know for for
for various entrance exams, and so I used to long.

(43:21):
He's my only grandchild and my son is the only child.
So I used to long, but I hardly used to
get time. Then he went to pit Pilani where you know,
before he could comes useless. Said that's what she said,
His useless set of friends would come, and I would
hardly have long to unless occasional like having a dinner
together or a birthday, nothing much would happen. I would
long to have his you know time. But you know, Aly,

(43:43):
when we were having dinner, he was very quiet and
he was not talking. He was not even looking at
me into my eyes. So I asked him, saying, Baba,
what happened? Why are you so silent? Is everything okay?
She said that she thought he was a little upset
that he was going away. She said, no, we're all there.
He's just a phone call away. With your WATSAP now
you can talk on a daily basis. So he said, no, no,
it's not that, and he was very quiet. He didn't

(44:04):
speak during the dinner, and she said he went to
she retired for a bed, and then she said he
knocked the door and he came in and he was
very quiet. You know, I get a really emotional and
religious becas I'm able to relate this myself, right, So
she said that he came to me and he said,
I'm very sorry. Party's grandma said, Party, I'm very very
sorry that I have not spent time with you. So

(44:25):
she said, no, no, that's okay. I can understand the compulsions.
He said, no, no, no, I realized after seeing the
pictures that you had so thoughtfully done. And I'm surprised, saying,
oh my god, she's taken so much of efforts, and
what did I do all these years I've not given
And she said he said, you know, he went to
his room and brought a sheet and he put it
by the side of a bed and he said, you know,

(44:46):
I'm going to stay here tonight. And she said we
were talking till two o'clock in the morning. He was
holding my hand. She said, I can't tell you how
happy I was. This is what I had wanted. Soti saying,
the new lot of people they want they tend to
have the so many of them now try to learn
what is active FaceTime, what is so they can conduct

(45:06):
with their grandchildren. So now what the grandsn did when
he went back was he called us and he said,
I want you to do something like this for my grandmother.
Because he said, this is something that I'm absolutely bold.
He's saying, I'm completely knocked out based on this gift.
So I'm saying today's seniors, you know, it's not just
about money, it's not about freedom. It's about emotion. It's

(45:29):
about a way to express emotions. There are so many
who call and say there are today people and you're
saying that I know it's my father's seventieth birthday. I'm
not there. There are people who will be a proxy
to conduct the whole event in their friends. I know
particular case we have done where almost fifty people, relatives
and friends of a person who turned eighty were invited

(45:52):
to a hotel without this person's knowledge, and he and
his wife just came thinking they were going in for
a meal. His wife knew about it all along. When
he word and he saw his photo and he said
happy birthday, and this whole crowd, the kind of joy
and he started crying immediately. And seeing there is so
much that elders want today and it's all available. You

(46:12):
just have to think, you have to talk. There are
so many people who will be able to connect. I
told you there are people who, you know, run these
buddy services. Hey, I want to go for a you know,
I just want to take a break. I want to
go of home somebody. I want to sit with my wife,
They'll come and sit with them. There are people who
will come with you with you to the theater. There
are people who will come when you're doing a dialysis.

(46:32):
They'll come and sit there so that you feel you're
not drained, too drained after a dialysis you want. There
are people who accompany you by a flight to a
destination and they come back by train and then they
come back and take you back. There is so much
available to the elders today, so much. I mean, holidays
are just one small expression, but today there is so much.
And today yeah, one more interesting thing from a Bangalore

(46:53):
based you know, there's this organization which does addresses for elders.
You may ask clothing. You may wonder what is very
special about clothing? See many of them develop, you know,
stiff shoulders them a lot comfortable and taking. So there
are magnetic robes that have come in. There are welcrow robes.
There are robes that you don't have to put it on,

(47:14):
you know, I'm just showing the action, but you can
just put it on the side. You can easily slip
into those robes. And these robes come up till you
are they're not fully down so that you don't trip.
There's so much happening. There are robes for people who
are going for a dialysis so that it's easy for
them to you know, wear these clothes given during the process.

(47:35):
There's so much that is happening in this area.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Yeah, it's it's a very emotional story. First of all.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
Yeah, I get tears and eyes. I don't know if
you could see it every time I relate that because
it's there are a lot of stories like that we
have done. But it's so you know, and there's there
is I mean, it's just like a movie. But there
is somebody who had sent us money to take their parents.
They said, my parents have never traveled by a flight.
May sound very you know if my side sound like

(48:03):
a movie story, but actually we did take a person
and his wife on a flight for the first time.
The take case, they booked, everything was done. The person
was escorted to the airport and took a thing and
came back and he was so happy because he kept
telling his son before I die, I want to fly once,
so imthing. There are so many things that you know happen,

(48:23):
and there's so much of joyous things to share rather
than you know, yeah, you also have elders with health issues,
they have financial issues, all these things and today also
one growing thing in the elders is that you know,
you talked about living, so I'm coming specifically. One time
we talked about people living in their own houses, right,
and there you are a mushrooming of huge senior communities

(48:45):
and living right. It is nice when you get into
them at sixty or sixty five because you're able to,
you know, go build your friends there. If you're eighty
seventy five eighty, you really don't enjoy because you know,
at that stage you really want to be in a
crowd tod What is also happening is that people are
choosing or buying a senior living was renting you asked

(49:06):
the kind of work that we did a lot of people.
We suggest that you don't buy to rent because that
that is much. If they don't like they can move
a or they're waiting for their green card. Until the
green card comes, they want saying if you buy, then
you get stuck. Or the children abroad, children don't want
to come back to India, but they want the parents
to live comfortably. So we have those options, you know

(49:28):
as well for these helders.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Yeah, I think we'll have to do a separate segment
just from that. Yeah, so I you know, I know
we've been very upbeat and everything, you know, but there
is this problem of loneliness that you address, you know. Finally,
I just want to talk about that a bit. I
remember you saying in the talk that I had heard
that you know, in Japan there are senior shoplifting people
just to get into prison so they have company.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
I think your viewers can actually google that because you know,
sometimes they may say, he what is this gay making up?
It's very sad. People are shop licks, petty thefts. They
call it a petty thefts. They're doing this petty thefts
just to go to a prison to talk to people
because they feel that they have These are absolute loneness.
Loneliness is one of the biggest you know. Actually, there's
this beautiful, you know, a twenty minute film on the

(50:14):
YouTube a good friend of Minus mate. It's called a
Shared cup of Coffee. A Shared cup of Coffee is
an amazing thing which talks addresses loneliness. You know. It's
a beautiful narrative of an old man who sits on
the beach and every daye just watches people, you know,
come and go buy. And there's this old lady who
comes and suddenly, out of somewhere, they form a bond

(50:37):
and slowly she's very hesitant initially to talk to him,
and he tries to talk to her. She says, who's
this guy? What is he trying to talk to me?
And then what will be the taboo of people seeing
me talk? Then slowly she warms up, slowly she starts looking, hey,
why isn't this guy come today? And then when he
comes to the kind of things that she has on her face,
and then slowly four or five friends form and you know,
it's a beautiful narrative of loneliness. And you know, it's

(51:01):
this narrative of how you know, loneliness can be see
today you know. Another the paradox is you can live
in a house with people and still feel lonely. See,
loneliness hits you in different ways. I can be with
the set of people, because today the biggest thing is
that everybody sits with the phone they don't have They
don't have my you know, somebody whom I was telling saying, hey,

(51:24):
if I want my grandson or my son to answer me,
I send them a WHAT'SAP message or I call them
and the WHAT'SAUP? Then they come running immediately, you know,
because that's what they're glued on to. So loneliness is
set in. People actually want to do something, but they
don't know what to do. They're scared of their INDI
they have a lot of inhibitions saying can I do this?
Can I not do this? And then you know, loneliness

(51:46):
is a big factor. It's they're saying that. You know,
the depression costs by loneliness is a multi trillion dollar
catastrophe for the economy. Loneliness is one of the biggest issues.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
Yeah, so what can we do? I mean, you know,
the senior community, what can they do? They're listening in
and what can other people do? As well, you know,
to counter this.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
Yeah, see, I don't know. There was a very nice
thing which was circulating some time back about the Swiss Bank.
I don't know if you know the Swiss Bank. The
Swiss Bank is based on the theory of karma. Right,
everybody there gives a set percentage of the time to
elders or people with who are lonely, and this is

(52:29):
credited into their time bank account. So as they grow old,
they have one hundred hours to their credit. They have
four hundred hours to their credit. So this is one
way of incentivizing people to give. The second one is
you know, for loneliness. Essentially is you know, to create
that intergenerational understanding. Right, children should understand why the grandparents

(52:51):
need their time, and this awareness has to be instilled
in fossil by the parents. Holidays means with your grandparents. Right,
these are things that can subtly or going on a
holiday with your grandparents. I see, these are things that
can come in. Third, I told you about this organization
called the Banglo. Tata has this organization good Fellows. Okay,

(53:15):
there is an organization called Elder Aid. Then in Chenna
you have this organization called my Aboard all these organizations
you know, work on loneliness. They give you time. They'll say, hey,
you can call up and saida I'm feeling lonely, I
feel like meeting somebody. Somebody comes and talks to you.
But the biggest thing, and I told you so, does
that soon essentially does that. It has people who talk

(53:37):
to you. But the challenge here Aldorada is how do
people know such options are available? So awareness is the key.
So if corporates could spend a bit of time see
IT organizations have most many of the IT organizations that
people living abroad, their parents living you know alone, or
even if they're within the within this country, they live

(53:59):
in different places or even within the city, and saying
if there could be an initiative launch by the corporates
saying hey, can we addresses we will do something for
the loneliness factor, that will be great. There are organizations
like Roadtary which have the muscle to do a social
initiative like this. These organizations come together TA could address

(54:19):
this loneliness a lot. And this loneliness factor looms significantly
in places like Caerla, where individuals live in huge houses.
There's no furniture, nothing, They live alone in their houses
because they are awards living you know in Dubai or
something as their wishes to create a big house for themselves.
And these elders just live there and they're lonely. They
don't come out, and you know, it's it's actually very sad.

(54:42):
So I mean, you can effectively reach out to these people.
The team is the soaps are just one avenue. There
is negativity and there is a positive thing of seeing
because there's absolute you know, I think you can call
it a formula. This is what you can get in
a soap. You know, there's this there's always a rivalry.

(55:04):
All the negative emotions and characters are built up there.
But if these people have something care LA government has
now initiated they've done a thing where people visit home
to home to home to just meet you, talk to
you and do so I'm thinking something like that if
the youngsters, if there is an initiative why I suppose
specifically spoke about the rotary was the Roatary Other than

(55:25):
the rotary and the members, they have movements called the
road Track movement, which is for the college people. Most
of the rotary clubs have one or two colleges attached
to them. Right, and then they have something called the
Intract Club, which is for the school students. Right if
they can run a program uniformly across this right, which
is supported by corporates on the loneliness factor. Just imagine,

(55:46):
I will love to come in, I can love to
seize hate. Tomorrow. That boy is coming, is going to
sit with me, I'm going to I'm going to make
a doza for him. I'm going to bake a cake
for him. And seeing that gives a lot of purpose,
you know too many of the elders, and many of
the elders want to I mean it's not like they
want they're going to take something from me. They want
to give you something and they want to meet somebody
to whom they could give this to.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
Yeah, it's a it's fun even for the person who's visiting.
Or you know, you get something in return, you're right, yeah, yeah,
and that sense of purpose, that something somebody is going
to be coming to meet me, So you know, you
get your house ready, you know, you plan the dish
you're going to make. It's it's yeah, you're right.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
No. And I was studying in my school time, we
had something called the Moral stories right now, this is
a moral practical thing as part of your academy. If
you're able to bring that saying that, hey, how many
hours and this is not on the fifth standard and SIXTHTID.
I mean you take it a level where the kids
are relatively mature to understand what lone illness is. But

(56:48):
you can even show them films. You know, you don't
have to necessarily ask them to visit elders. But I'm saying,
if we start working, all of us start working in this,
you know, that will be great. If somebody says, hey,
I know friend of mine, she lives in Agatha and
she's lonely, and then you try and reach out to
somebody and saying can you go and meet up person.
Elders are also very suspicious. They don't let you know,

(57:09):
they don't you know, allow people to access them very
very easily. But if it's a known person that they
will love. So if you can work on these loneliness
factors right today, many of the elders long, if there's
a media which could you know, do the reviews of
ott you know, movies and programs, they would love to
go through it and you know, start listening or if

(57:30):
you create a platform where they can discuss the pluses
and minuses of a movie, just imagine how many people
will log onto that and then their opinion for one
Now they just chat chat session is something and most
of the many of them are quite savvy. They know
how to use their phone, they know how to use
the tab. They will just spend hours together. You find
out their areas of interest and start creating them.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
Yeah, but that's wonderful. Whether it's you know and see
grandparents have the time, parents are busy so they can
connect with the younger generation or even you know operates.
You're seeing the rotary even us, all of us. It's
it's yeah, we're and we're all getting there to the same.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
But actually, you know, it's actually in the reverse. There
is so much these people have to offer or to give,
absolutely from the traditional I mean if you look at
somebody who was interested in tradition. You know, in Chennai
there are a lot of elderly women who teach you
the arangoli. See the wrangoli is match. It's based on
the dots and how you connect the dots, right, and

(58:31):
that is being taught by people. So when I go abroad,
when I go to the US and I found a home.
I say, hey, how did you do it? Rather than
having a sticker across right, traditional dishes are coming back
to you know, they're coming back to flavor and they said, hey,
I went to this particular assault, I had this. So
I'm saying, there's so much the elders have to give
back to the society if you.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
Sit there, so much, yeah, so much to learn, yeah,
and to preserve, you know, so much of culture, traditions.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
And also experiences. The narration that they have is huge.
Many times, you know, there are corporate issues that can
be sorted out by just talking to a few of
them because they have lived it practically right today, what
are the issues that we have. We're talking about team
when we're talking about you know, a team game. That
is because as youngsters, when I grew up, we never

(59:21):
used to be you know, in silos we have twenty
cousins or you know, your friends, all of you pack together,
you run, you know, you you always are with a
set of people. So you've grown up with that feeling.
Today's kids are alone, today's kids are onto the phones.
Today's kids, I'm not I'm not trying to you know
type cast a kid today, but I'm saying these are
things that you know.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
They interest because even you know, picking up the phone
to call comes to us, but for more of the
younger generation, they'd rather just message. So even that art
is going you know.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely absolutely, So that is as far as
the loneliness so much of you know, work. Mental health
is something that is very very critical for elders, and
you know, we need to find ways of addressing the
mental health, how to keep them in good cheer. They
can get depressed very very easily because financial strains are
one of the main things that they have. But somebody

(01:00:10):
needs to sit with them and say, hey, no, you're
doing fine, you can manage, and these are the options
that you have. And there are a lot of people
who give that one important thing. When you touched upon this,
twenty five percent of bangaud it used to be much higher.
He used to be forty forty two percent. But if
you look, there is something like, you know, one hundred
and ninety lack corores of deposits and dividends that are

(01:00:31):
remaining unclaimed. I don't know what my husband had when
he died, but I don't know what my wife had
invested in. But if somebody could, you know, if there's
a set of people who could be trusted and start
digging into all your papers and say, hey, listen, you
have about ten to twelve lacks of money which is
not being done. First ye have to just demat will

(01:00:52):
demat it for you, and then we'll get the cash.
Just imagine they have a lot of wealth that they
have to still retrieve. So much like that, we have
seen cases where people suddenly have discovered because we put
people on they've discovered saying oh I had my husband.
I never knew my husband had so many shares.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
Things like that, Yeah I am yeah, yeah, a lot
of things to work.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
On, absolutely, absolutely. So the other thing was two days back,
I had spoken to somebody when they had come out
with a very interesting concept. They're saying, elders forget tend
to forget so medicines. So they have this packaged medicines, right.
They have it by break pre breakways, post breakways, each day,
by date, so you know if you've not eaten one day,

(01:01:36):
you know that you've missed. And these are companies where
every month, on the twenty fifth or twenty one week
before the end of the month they call you and
remind you and saying, hey, you have Then you suddenly say, oh,
I have so many tablets. I have not taken their
reprenicious stock, so all these have. I'm saying today, if
somebody would be able to you know, I'm sure you know,
with cuss like yours, they were saying, hey, what is

(01:01:58):
available to you? A lot of elders would start coming
and start, you know, understanding what is available to that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
You're right, it's like putting a book together or a manual,
and everything in this so.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Much, absolutely absolutely Okay. There's another story that I would
like to relate recently. A neighbor of mine who was
who was sixty five, right, it's not very old, but
he's there. He wanted to buy a car. Now I'm
telling about the reverse thing of youngsters and elders. So
he worked. He wanted to go earlier. At used to
be a nightmare because a moment to decide, first, you

(01:02:30):
don't know what car to decide on. And two, if
you've kind of done that, you go to a car dealer,
the information leaks out and there are some hundreds of
these sales guys will start hounding you. But a car
dealer ex car dealer, why dealer in the same brand
start calling ITU was information keeps going through. Then financials
will start calling you because they will not know what

(01:02:52):
your profile that they'll think that you need a money.
So there's a big headaches. So this guy said, strict,
you know I must tell this. I said, I want
you to relate it to your reference. He says that
you know sometime back when I did you know my
good friend of mine. Set there is experienced. There are
the set of youngsters who have started organization called car Pile.

(01:03:13):
Excuse me, so what does harp pal do? Hard pile
first helps you identify which car based on talking to you.
They first identify what car you want to buy. Then
they arrange for the press strife. They mask your numbers.
The plumbers go through. It's like you're older. When the

(01:03:33):
old guy calls, you call through a zero a Xero number,
which is mask. Your number is not available with him, right,
so is they mask that they bring you for test drive.
You can do any number of press drives. They do
that and the dealers are not supposed to contract you.
They don't give your numbers to the dealer at all. Right,
Then after that you can come out with any number
of questions and they answer these questions. Then what happens

(01:03:55):
is that they do a holistic thque Then they say okay,
then you say, fine, I have this car, I want
to it has to They come, they do a valuation,
They give you the best price you can come back
with anybody else. But I'm saying everything at a doorstep.
You don't have to step out anywhere, okay, And then
they come. What they do is they value your car everything,
and then you pay minus at valuation. They show that

(01:04:17):
as a car advance, so it's not that you pay
back after you buy the car. So you then what
happens is on the day of delivery, they bring the
car to your home. Then they take you for a
test ryer, they take you to the temple if you
want to do a pooja. They answer all questions everything,
They even do the fast tag for you rights to
the extent. Then after delivering a car, they take your
old car and they drive it away. Just imagine sitting

(01:04:40):
at your doorstep. Now I'm just talking about this car
services and car amazing sort of young engineers right who
have hit upon this idea. But just imagine if I
am going to set this as a for all services,
if I give, I'm going to do I'm going to
go to Mahindra Holidays. Somebody sends me a virtual reality
and say say, listen, you are the same. This is

(01:05:01):
the age. These are the kind of properties within Mindra holidays.
You know which will suit you right, and you can
go into these. There are no steps, there are elevators.
So what happens is your decision making becomes easy, right,
and you see what you you get. Talking about holidays,
They've come out with a scheme called Bless, which is
Bliss which actually focuses on the sixty five and above.

(01:05:24):
It's a twenty year old or a ten year old
Timeshared scheme focus only on the senior. So I'm saying
this market so in every product, just take I'm taking
about Carpal. But Carpis is just an example. Right. If
I talk about a coher implementation, many people don't here.
If I want to test it in a public they
may be shy. They don't want to. They have these inhibitions.

(01:05:46):
They don't want to come out. But if I connect
with them on a one to one basis and talk
to them, give them a demo, put this and say listen,
take your time. I'll come tomorrow. Ask me whatever questions
you want till you know they buy. Just imagine the
experience that the elder would go to. And in elders,
the biggest advantage is your word of mouth marketing. If
they are very happy with you, they will talk about

(01:06:08):
you too. At least another ten people the story I
talked to you about the digitization we did. Subsequently, we
did almost forty such requests for elders right now. We
didn't continue it more because I don't have the man power.
But today you can do that. And then see get
the hardest manufacturer and came to us and say, hey,
if you're doing this, it's a course. They will give
it to the elders at a certain discount because you

(01:06:30):
start creating a story and sending it to thing. Would
you be involved in a So I'm not asking you
for a free thing, but can you do something for
this segment? And then they come back to you and say, hey,
this looks interesting. Yes, because they're looking at a huge horizon.
See this is a non conventional sales technique that you have. Similarly,
when I talked about the you know swivel seats a

(01:06:52):
lot of because you know, a lot of elders asked
started asking the car dealer saying that can I put
a swell seat in your model? Will it be compatible?
Suddenly the dealers found that that was one of the
deterans or was one of the screening things for elders
to buy a car. Now many of them have started

(01:07:13):
talking about civil seeds. So like this is, you know,
the narrative changes. You are a consumer. The elder is
a consumer today, whether there is consuming you know, something social,
whether it's consuming something material, he is in a position
to demand. He or she is in a position to
actually say I want this, and there are enough and

(01:07:34):
more people running today. The problem is that you know,
many people do not know what they what is available
so that they can they normally go. It's something like
a painter. If you if you go to a local painter,
that guy is very familiar with only one brand of
paint and which is used to he'll suggest he SEK,
that is the best, and you'll go. You have no choice.
But if there are you know, opportunities, like you know

(01:07:55):
your stage, people can start understand and you know, getting
to experience things and they then become ambassadors. They take
this information across two places.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
Yeah, it's fantastic, Like, you know, serials are demanding and
they're getting what they want, and the market is realizing
that this is a strong segment. Yeah, you know, they're
bending over backwards.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
Literally, No, they don't have to bend backwards. Market is
realizing that there is a huge potential here. It is
a new emerging market. I would not say that they
bend backwards. I would say that they're branding forwards because
they don't want to lose. They don't want to lose. Yeah,
they don't want to lose. Now, why will I if
I'm going to my you know, if I'm flying to UK, right,

(01:08:41):
would I choose Emirates or will I choose British Airways?
I will probably choose British Aways because they allow me
twenty three into two bags. But it depends on what
my adjeta is. If I'm guess on a holiday, probably
because comfort is more and emeriates I will take because
they'll allow me only at twenty three kg baggage. And
I'm saying their choice is distilled down to that level.

(01:09:03):
And it's interesting because these people are well informed and
then you have this Google doctor who will tell you
there it's good or bad. You can just go people
go put it on the Google and then they see
whatever you know they want to see.

Speaker 1 (01:09:18):
Yeah. Yeah, information is power, really yeah, absolutely, But then
you know how to channelize this information. Yeah, and that
awareness like you said, you know, yeah, yeah, not everybody
is aware that, you know, like I had no idea
about all these things. I know about a couple of them,
but not like it's such a big industry. You know,
there's so much.

Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
No, it is, it is, it is. You know, as
I told you, I was myself surprised when I was
part of one book when we were doing this. You know,
it's not only the financial services. You have people who
make diabetic slippers, right. You have people who come with
light baggages that you can elders and it's easier for
the elders to move you. People come with this concept

(01:09:59):
of daily pills and the pill masters, right, it's called
the pillbox. There are people who come with you and say, hey,
can you lend a voice? Can we do something like
you know the current details? Can we do There are
a lot of grandmas who are getting into the story
storytelling now it's so nice when you hear a grandmother
and she's telling stories. There are children, see, I don't know. Strangely,

(01:10:20):
I don't know. I don't want to put this as
a you know, a thing, but there are a lot
of people, you know, living outside India who find a
lot of value in you know, these traditions and saying, oh,
this party stories. I want this party stories. It's selling
at this particular place. So I'm saying you can use
them significantly, and they would be too excited to do

(01:10:43):
it for you. You know, the opportunities are huge.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
Yeah, you Yeah, I hope somebody listening to you. You know,
I'm sure people are already listening and doing so much actually.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
Talented talented thinking.

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
Absolutely. If you look at the Facebook today, you have
Grandma's recipe. It says this pickle is done by this
particular grandma in that recip and it sells audobooking and
there are a lot of people commenting on that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
You say, Grandma, it sells. It's like that, yeah, Grandma
by recipe.

Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
Because the respects saying you've come with sea. I'm saying
earlier days, they used to have these long hair, people
had decorated associating seat today, whether it's because of the
environmental conditions or the you know, chemical content of the
cosmetics that we use that you know, there are so
many things that we don't you know, attach a value to.

(01:11:44):
That is why probably you know, in the sun Leaver
is talking about chickagai, which is which is for them tradition,
right uh, and the toothpaste are talking about clothes, which
is you know, everybody knew clothes a good thing for
your teeth. But I'm saying, once it comes to an advertisement,
and you know it says my grandmother said this, my
grandfather said this, So this is how it comes in.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
Yeah. No, absolutely, It's been a pleasure to be talking
to you. I hope it's the first of many conversations.

Speaker 2 (01:12:15):
Thank you. You know, I enjoyed. I really enjoyed this conversation.
And it also gives me, you know, so much of
happiness that when I'm connecting to people. Because I told
you we work separately on the We've done more than
twenty projects, but in the nine thousand, more than nine
thousand people we've dealt with. Everybody has come with some
kind of a requirement. And today I'm saying, like me

(01:12:35):
there are many people who sit listen to you and
then give you a customized solution. They don't give you
saying oh you want this, take this. No, they try
to go further and find out whether it will suit you,
it will not suit you, so on and so forth. Right,
So that is how they come today. If there is
something that can show, if there is some kind of
a media that shows in the neighborhood, see you have

(01:12:57):
in Bango in chenny of the neighborhood newspapers, but not
in all the areas, right, I'll probably look at qu
among a lot of times or the other at times
in chinning. But if there's something which says, you know, hey,
this is even happening for the elders in this particular place.
It could be even once a month, once in two months,
they will know that something is happening. They say, my
friends are coming there. I would like to go congratinations

(01:13:19):
Steve for doing such a wonderful program and you know,
really hats off for the kind of initiatives that you're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:13:24):
No, no, thanks to you and what you know. The
takeaway for me says, you know, we shouldn't just talk
about them as a homogenous bunch senior people. You know,
like you're saying, it's all personalized, customized. Each person is different.
They're all individuals and you know that's how we should
look at it. It's a very vibrant community.

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
True and contrary to believe, they will be very difficult
people to deal with and all they're fun. They have
this initial inhibition because you know, they're cautious, which is good.
Once they get to know you, it's a riot. It's
a right. You know. I must invite you to the
meetings that we have for chaired by a lady Sabda Ada,

(01:14:02):
who's eighty years old. Her only thing is I want
to help people. I want to stave off loneliness, right,
So we have patrons who give them, give us spaces
and say, bring a bunch of elders. We would like
to you know, we'd like to entertain with them. I'll
just give you a thing on the thirteenth of this month.
You know, Savera Hotels and Nina Radio is a chairperson,

(01:14:24):
is so attached to this course of elders. She's giving
a place, she's giving the food, and she's saying, hey,
bring a bunch of elders and entertain them. I'm seeing
opportunities like this could come everywhere. I hope you know three,
people like you will be able to connect more, you know,
elders to such.

Speaker 1 (01:14:43):
I'm sure I'd love to come. Please let me Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:14:46):
Yeah, thank you so much, thank you so much for
your time.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
Yeah thanks bye, yeah bye

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Ep 46: PS Srikumar: Why India’s seniors can’t be ignored

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