By Mr. V.N. Kashyap In the year 2012, at the age of 71, I was diagnosed with the cancer of the vocal cord.  It turned my life upside down.   Each day became a life-changing experience for me, with the frequent trips to hospitals, consulting different doctors, and undergoing countless diagnostic tests. Each day I wrote to myself…. Everything is fine…. EVERYTHING IS FINE, BUT……………… After I felt a little hoarse, with difficulty to talk, I thought the best course of action will be to consult a doctor.   The doctor asked me for the history, he came to some conclusion, and prescribed some medicine and said: EVERYTHING IS FINE, BUT……………… Please…

By Dr. Paromita Sengupta Urinary incontinence is common in older people. Unfortunately, out of all the health issues which come up with aging, troublesome bladder is the most challenging one. The most common types of urinary incontinence are stress incontinence (a condition in which you lose urine during general physical movement or activities like coughing, laughing, sneezing or exercising) and overactive bladder incontinence (an urge to urinate so intense you lose urine before you’re able to get to the toilet). Sometimes, the bladder does not empty, and the person experiences frequent leaking of urine. This condition is called overflow incontinence. Many a time, due to old age or health conditions…

By Ashima Aneja My relationship with my grandparents was of love, trust, and respect. They imparted important values that helped me in my human revolution to lead a happy and balanced life. They pampered me, bought me my favorite ice -creams, chocolates, and toys and secretly gave me pocket money on various occasions. These gifts were sometimes to reward and reinforce my good behavior, for instance, when I accompanied them to fetch the weekly groceries from the market or scored well in my exams. Occasionally, I also received gifts without any reason, just because they wanted to see me smile. My grandparents fulfilled all my wishes without me reminding them…

Cycling Without Age (CWA) is a wonderful initiative launched by Ole Kassow, from Denmark, to make elders happy, healthy, active, and feel included in society. The organization aims to provide fun and happiness to the seniors, in the form of free volunteer-supported trishaw/ cycle rickshaw/bike-taxi rides. Volunteers, known as pilots sign up for these free trishaw rides with the seniors in their local community. As the elders step out in the open air, they talk, laugh, sing, cry, get mischievous, and feel happy. They share their stories, feelings, and experiences with the pilots, and in turn, get to learn about the current society. Ole aims to build a healthy and…

A year back, during a trip to my mother’s place in Kolkata, India, I found a neatly folded bag in her cupboard. It had empty sachets of her regular medicines and a handwritten note of the timings for taking them. She explained to me that she could not understand her prescription. Hence, she used her notes and kept the empty sachets, which proved useful when she needed to re-order her medicines. I was scared to even think of the consequences of my mother taking a double dose of her diabetes medicine or skipping her blood pressure pills due to a wrong reference to her notes. I sat down with her…

One of the major differentiators of an Indian (or Asian) household from the western counterpart has been the concept of a joint family. It is the sons and daughters or the extended family who take care of the senior member. With globalization and better opportunities for higher education and jobs abroad, Indians today have begun to adopt the social rules of the western world. Until a few decades, we never thought of elderly support as a subject of discussion.  Our parents have looked after our grandparents, who in turn, were a pillar of knowledge, wisdom, security, companionship, and love for the family. The need was always mutual. Today’s fast-track life…