About a decade ago, when I was still a student
at the university, I was traveling by train to Guwahati from Delhi for a short
break. The train ride was largely pleasant except for an old woman who tormented
me with her sorry constitution as she coughed and wheezed and spoke of how she
was languishing on account of old age. The rest of her family (she was
traveling with her son, daughter-in-law and two naughty grandsons) mostly
ignored her coughs and wheezes, so I took it upon myself to mourn with her
about the perils of ‘old age’. And then she revealed her age. Sixty two! She
was only sixty two, my dad’s age then! And what a sight this frail, bent woman made
in comparison to my robust dad! Dad is seventy two now and is still vigorous,
enjoys trekking every once in a while, never skirts his evening walk, does
gardening, shops the household’s vegetables, meat and fish by himself, relishes
his evening peg, plays the violin and the keyboard, and does what not!
Post-retirement, life has never been a drag for him. He remains a great
inspiration.
Hence, when I
heard about the RunWithMelia campaign, a half marathon only for senior
citizens, organized by Melia First Citizen in association with AirTel, I jumped
with joy! You can participate in this half marathon only if you are 55 years of
age and above! Isn’t that awesome? Especially in a country like India where we
need to look at and deal with old age differently. It’s time we realized that
age is in the mind, and that there can never be the right age to grow old. No
matter how old one grows, one should never stop living.
For details about
this half marathon, which will take place on 23 November 2014 in Delhi, you can
visit https://www.facebook.com/MeliaFirstCitizen/app_1560925290787425
Here I would also like to applaud Melia First
Citizen’s (http://meliafirstcitizen.com/) vision
and engagement with senior citizens. Melia First Citizen is a world-class
luxury retirement community within a 17.5 acre suburban residential project -
The Melia. The thrust is to allow senior citizens to reinvent their retirement
years, their leisure years. It is conveniently located at Delhi NCR, a short
drive away from the Golf Course Extension Road in Gurgaon at Sector 35, Gurgaon
Extension (Sohna). Melia First Citizen has been conceived and designed by Group Silverglades, one of India's leading boutique real estate
developers.
(Note: Group Silverglades has been
credited with creating benchmarks of excellence with some of the most admired
and iconic landmarks in North India. The Laburnum residences and Classic Golf
Resort in Gurgaon in collaboration with ITC, The IVY residences in Gurgaon and
Tarudhan Valley Golf Resort - India's first gated golf community, are just a
few of them.)
Overlooking
the Aravalli range, Melia First Citizen offers a limited set of luxury
senior-living homes as an ideal retirement haven. It has been designed such so
as to promote a vibrant, energetic and happy elderly life with facilities like
swimming pools, games parlors, jogging areas etc. At Melia First Citizen, the
idea is to bring out the elderly from the notion of a dull and boring ‘old age’
and present them with new avenues for a vibrant lifestyle. Through
RunWithMelia, Melia First Citizen is promoting positivity and adventure among
the elderly. Such an exercise definitely needs to be encouraged.
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