4 min readPuneAug 3, 2024 10:17 PM IST
First published on: Aug 3, 2024 at 10:17 PM IST
When the stringent lockdown was in place during the Covid pandemic, Shantanu Naidu, who had been living away from his family in a small apartment in Mumbai at the time, got all his meals from his neighbours.
“They used to give me hot food everyday because they realised I couldn’t cook to save my life and that was the time when even getting groceries was difficult. So everyday before they sat down to their meal, aunty used to come and give me hot food like kadhi dal rice, etc,” said Naidu, recollecting the memories he had with a couple that was in their mid-eighties. It was this effort by the elderly couple that wracked Naidu’s conscience and he started to wonder how he could give back to them.
“I didn’t want to do anything materialistic. I realised that time is the only resource I have, so I started giving them more and more time, and I saw their mood and excitement changed, they could share their memories too,” said Naidu.
He then thought about the other elderly people in his building and struck upoon an idea to involve more young people. It’s been two and a half years since Naidu did a Beta test with 15 senior citizens in Mumbai, and the results were heartwarming.
That’s the founding story of Goodfellows — a startup that employs young graduates who become companions for senior citizens.
After a good run in Mumbai for three years, it has finally launched its operations in Pune. They hosted their first event where 35 elderly citizens participated in block painting, danced, and chit-chatted with each other and the “goodfellows” at Sangamwadi in Pune.
They do two things, one is social events, but the main part is goodfellows who act as grandkids to senior citizens who don’t have anyone of their own or whose sons have moved abroad. (Express Photo)
They do two things, one is social events, but the main part is goodfellows who act as grandkids to senior citizens who don’t have anyone of their own or whose sons have moved abroad. They visit their houses and spend two to three hours with them on alternate days.
The main part in its smooth functioning is to ensure goodfellows are empathetic and the same goodfellow visits the same “grandpal” over a period of time to develop a bond with them. “The secret ingredient to match a goodfellow with a grandpal is that we realised the further apart the relationships are in terms of age, the stronger the relationships are. So 85 and 18, 90 and 21 — because the youngsters get a lot of knowledge and stay grounded and seniors pick up on the energy,” said Naidu.
Rupesh Thakur, 21, has been a gooodfellow for over two years. Recollecting fond memories of a grandpal, Thakur said, “I had a grandpal named Jayashree. She passed away. When I used to visit her, the starting days were very silent.
We used to not talk a lot… silent visits. I had just started doing my visits and I only had one grandpal. After a few days we developed a really good bond, I used to make cheese sandwiches and tea for her. She used to wait for me to have her evening snacks. One day we were sitting and she told me I am like a son to her now.”
Naidu said they have demand from cities like Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi, but they can’t mass recruit empathetic people, so the process will be slow. Pune was on top of the list and that has been ticked off.
The main part in its smooth functioning is to ensure goodfellows are empathetic and the same goodfellow visits the same "grandpal" over a period of time to develop a bond with them. (Express Photo) 
They do two things, one is social events, but the main part is goodfellows who act as grandkids to senior citizens who don’t have anyone of their own or whose sons have moved abroad. (Express Photo)
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