The Swingin8217; 60s

Young enough to tell the world where to get off and old enough not to care when someone else tells them off, today8217;s senior citizens are sightseeing, swinging, snorkelling and scuba-diving into their sixties and seventies8212;with spouse, friends, total strangers and even on their own8212;in seven-star style.

With the children grown up, money matters largely settled and more time on their hands than ever before, the silver generation is ready to take on the world. Oh yes, there are health concerns, upset routines, tense kids, even the occasional unpleasant experience, but none of it prevents them from having the time of their lives8212;or planning another trip.

Best of all, they say, their baggage no longer includes guilt. 8216;8216;Maybe it8217;s only at this stage of my life that I can leave the home for a week and not worry about it,8217;8217; says Swarnlata Mehta, 65, of Pune.

So the mother of three and grandmother of five ganged up with three kirtan group friends to take off for Goa.

8216;8216;Everyone in the family had been there, and I was really keen to go too. Since the respective husbands weren8217;t up to it, we went on our own. The best part was the beaches; we spent hours by the sea,8217;8217; says Mehta.

Once upon a time, the tripper8217;s paradise may not have been considered the ideal destination for a bunch of senior citizens, but today8217;s savvy 60s couldn8217;t care less about the doneness of things.

8216;8216;This is the time to travel and see the world. A few years down the line, we8217;ll be too old,8217;8217; says Moti Mirchandani, 71, just back from a 20-day trip to Australia and New Zealand that included snorkelling off the Great Barrier Reef, a night at a sheep farm and a visit to a Maori settlement.

In these exotic pursuits, company is the all-important factor. If the Mirchandanis travelled Down Under with like-minded couples from Saroj Mirchandani8217;s kitty group, Supriya Das, 65, and his wife Ajanta of Kolkata are happiest with a disparate group whose only common interest is travel.

8216;8216;We don8217;t live in the same locality, we don8217;t even have similar professional interests. What binds us together is wanderlust,8217;8217; says Das, an adman. 8216;8216;For many years now, eight to 10 of us simply pile into two cars and hit the road. It is hazardous, but we have complete freedom within the plan, which is fixed at least three months in advance.8217;8217;

The opportunity for unlimited interaction with a chosen group8212;similar in taste, even if strangers8212;prompts the Bhargavas of Delhi to put cruises at the head of their most-wanted holidays. 8216;8216;We took our first cruise 10 years ago in Alaska, and we were hooked. Our last cruise was in the Mediterranean. It was absolutely amazing,8217;8217; says Narendra Nath Bhargava, 78. 8216;8216;Since my job with a US-based company called for a lot of travelling, we saw quite a bit of the world while I was working. Now we are catching up with the rest!8217;8217;

Not quite in the same league but motivated by similar company issues, 50 sexagenarians piled into a train from Chandigarh to Chennai last year. Many were meeting for the first time but, as on board ship, it was only a matter of time before everyone found someone to bond with. 8216;8216;At this age, family and children are conversation starters that never fail,8217;8217; laughs Vinod Virmani, 63. 8216;8216;Of course, we had all travelled before, but the south India trip was like no other. We each paid just Rs 2,900 excluding food and sat back and enjoyed ourselves,8217;8217; adds Sarla Chadha, 64.

In a way, Vinod and Sarla are inheritors of a travelling tradition that has been nurtured by rail and air fare discounts for senior citizens. But the focus has shifted firmly from the Char Dham and the teerth trail to leisure destinations. And a number of travel agencies, smelling an opportunity, are now packaging Nepal, Kashmir, Kerala and even Africa for the elderly, combining the standard privileges with easy itineraries, quality accommodation, optional sightseeing and airport or rail transfers.

8216;8216;The number of senior citizen travellers has gone up by as much as 20 per cent in the past two years,8217;8217; says Mehr Bhandara of TCI, which has just launched Senior Specials packages. 8216;8216;We were inundated with requests for holiday packages with a leisurely pace.8217;8217;

The bald statement speaks for a number of social changes: Evolved family equations, greater exposure to faraway destinations, higher acceptance of the consumerist elderly and the disinclination to save for rainy days that may or may not come. 8216;8216;Even our children want us to use our savings to have fun,8217;8217; say the Basus of Ahmedabad.

So in November, Nibedita and retired IAS officer Prabir Basu, both in their early 60s, flew to Bangladesh to make a dream come true. 8216;8216;I8217;d always wanted to visit our ancestral village, which we left behind when Partition happened,8217;8217; says Nibedita. 8216;8216;The house was in a shambles, but I was so surprised to see a road, a jetty, even a powerhouse named after my grandfather. This was the first we ever knew of them.8217;8217;

As with the Basus, Mridula Syed, too, is aware that time is running out and dreams have to be lived now. 8216;8216;I waited my whole life to visit Israel,8217;8217; says the 60-year-old grandmother, a Christian married to a Muslim. 8216;8216;And when I saw the Garden of Gethsemane, I just wanted to get down on my knees and pray. It reinforces everything one has read and heard through life.8217;8217;

Syed was one of a group of 13 Christians who flew to Israel for 10 days in May. Seven of them were above 65. 8216;8216;The trip made the whole Gospel come alive,8217;8217; says Sheela Solomon, who at 60 was one of the younger travellers.

If faith drove Solomon and Syed, fun was the spur for the Sahnis of Mumbai8212;that, and some heavy-duty making up.

8216;8216;I8217;d been to Japan, Dubai and Norway while with the ONGC, but my wife had never been abroad,8217;8217; says

AN Sahni, 66. 8216;8216;So when a resident of our building complex in Kandivli suggested a Europe tour, we jumped at the chance. Since health concerns don8217;t allow us to travel on our own, and we prefer to move with people in our own age group, this seemed a perfect opportunity.8217;8217;

And increasingly, international tour operators are getting used to the elderly-on-their-own.

Taking a cue from domestic travel organisations, cruise liners offer cabin upgrades and other privileges, if not fare cuts. And travel agents themselves are equipped for eventualities.

8216;8216;I carry sorbitrates in my shirt pocket,8217;8217; smiles Anil Damle of Pune, who specialises in conducting Kenyan safaris. 8216;8216;Almost 60 per cent of our clientele is above the age of 55. Older women, specially, seem to be travelling on their own. They are totally gung-ho when it comes to trying out something new.8217;8217;

Like Vijaya Darve, 61, who loved her 90 minutes up in a hot-air balloon and the ride through the bush country in Masai Mara in Kenya recently. Refer to her as a senior citizen and she bristles. 8216;8216;I think only those above 75 should be called 8216;senior8217;. We are fit and love to travel, so why not?8217;8217;

And if you think it is only in foreign countries that our solitary travellers feel safe, you obviously haven8217;t met Shashi Verma. At 69, she has just returned from a solo trip to Srinagar. 8216;8216;Even travelling in Delhi is dangerous,8217;8217; she says without batting an eyelid. 8216;8216;And what the hell, Srinagar is beautiful!8217;8217;

So is life. Even when viewed with bifocals and bypassed hearts.

Swapna Nair in Ahmedabad; Jaskiran Kaur in Chandigarh; Kamini Mathai in Chennai; Madhur Singh in Delhi; Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay in Kolkata;
Monica Bathija in Mumbai; Aishwarya Mavinkurve in Pune

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