Skip to main content

Retirement Homes in Kerala


Three years ago, Kerala was declared the fastest ageing state in India. In the past 60 years, the percentage of people aged 60 and above in Kerala has shot up from 5.1% to 16.5% - the highest in Indian states. I am also one of those booming sexagenarians of Kerala. On top of that, Kerala’s youth are leaving the state for foreign countries. They study whatever course is available to them in those foreign countries, take up some job and settle down there. Their parents will live in Kerala. And grow old. So old age homes and retirement homes and others of the type are in great demand in the state.

There are some remarkably good retirement homes available in the state already. I’m sure more such will come up sooner rather than later. Let me present just a few here. I took an interest in them because Maggie and I are likely to end up in one of those in not too distant a future.

Bless Homes in Kochi


Let me start with one from the city nearest my village, Kochi. “Some call it Retirement, but we name it Bliss,” says the website of Bless Homes. The geriatric-friendly apartments are situated on a picturesque hillock near Aluva in Ernakulam district. They provide three types of apartments: studio apartment of 400 square feet area, one bedroom of 550 sqft, and 2 bedrooms of 900 sqft. The residents will get food, nursing care, laundry service, club and recreation, yoga, etc. An apartment can be owned till one wants it or till one’s death [Right to Live option] or taken on monthly or daily rent.

Felycity Senior Living Homes in Kochi


My quick research threw up a lot of retirement homes in Kochi. After all, Kochi is to Kerala what Mumbai is to India. Felycity has two sets of senior living homes in Kochi – one in Aluva and the other in Angamaly. Both offer independent retirement living with vibrant social activities. Professional nursing care is provided too to those in need.

Ananta Living in Palakkad


This is “a sanctuary from the world outside, yet very much a part of it,” their website declares. These are luxury apartments that foster community living among the senior citizens giving them opportunities to socialize and for recreation in a blissful ambience. They also have different plans which they call Gold and Silver. The campus offers all the amenities required by the elderly like nursing support, nutrition plans, fitness programs, and so on.

Tharavad Homes in Kochi

Just a few kilometres from Cochin International airport, Tharavad Homes provides world class, waterfront luxurious living facilities. The website makes a lot of promises like all other similar websites but it is not quite explicit about most services. Many required details are missing.

Season Two – the best in my view

Season Two, Kochi

There are many other retirement homes in Kerala. The best of all that I saw in the world of the internet is Season Two Senior Living. They have homes in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. Apart from providing all the facilities mentioned above, Season Two will help you manage your property, finances, taxes, insurance, and bills. They even take care of the maintenance of your current home or find tenants for it. The enterprise was initiated by Sajan Pillai who lived in California for over 25 years. When his own parents became entirely dependent on others, he understood the importance of giving good care to the elderly. “Today my mother lives in a Season Two senior home in Thiruvananthapuram and she loves every minute of it,” says Pillai. I’m planning to visit the Season Two home in Kochi to get more intimate awareness about it. When I do, I’ll give you a better picture. For the time being, be satisfied with the above one that is taken from their website.

Conclusion

I did this research merely to be aware of the options and facilities available to the elderly who have no one else to fall back on in their old age. The conclusion is that there are many foundations or organisations that provide all sorts of services. There are some which provide palliative care too at nominal rates or even absolutely free. I am sure the demographic condition in Kerala will spawn a lot more such services in many places.

PS. All pics are from the respective websites

 

Comments

  1. Hari OM
    The aging population is something that is becoming an issue in many places; finding quality establishments that live up to their online hype can prove challenging also. I would be very wary of one that seeks to handle all affairs, though... strikes me there is potential for fraud there! In the end, it is always best to make at least three visits and also, if possible, talk to families and residents there for deeper insight. YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This one that handles everything seems to be meant for those who are unable to go on by themselves anymore. But you're right, online info is too insignificant for sound assessment. I'm thinking of investigating a few such institutions.

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Some inevitabilities have to be accepted though they're sad.

      Delete
  3. These type of homes are mushrooming in Maharashtra too.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Florentino’s Many Loves

Florentino Ariza has had 622 serious relationships (combo pack with sex) apart from numerous fleeting liaisons before he is able to embrace the only woman whom he loved with all his heart and soul. And that embrace happens “after a long and troubled love affair” that lasted 51 years, 9 months, and 4 days. Florentino is in his late 70s when he is able to behold, and hold as well, the very body of his beloved Fermina, who is just a few years younger than him. She now stands before him with her wrinkled shoulders, sagged breasts, and flabby skin that is as pale and cold as a frog’s. It is the culmination of a long, very long, wait as far as Florentino is concerned, the end of his passionate quest for his holy grail. “I’ve remained a virgin for you,” he says. All those 622 and more women whose details filled the 25 diaries that he kept writing with meticulous devotion have now vanished into thin air. They mean nothing now that he has reached where he longed to reach all his life. The

Unromantic Men

Romance is a tenderness of the heart. That is disappearing even from the movies. Tenderness of heart is not a virtue anymore; it is a weakness. Who is an ideal man in today’s world? Shakespeare’s Romeo and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas would be considered as fools in today’s world in which the wealthiest individuals appear on elite lists, ‘strong’ leaders are hailed as nationalist heroes, and success is equated with anything other than traditional virtues. The protagonist of Colleen McCullough’s 1977 novel, The Thorn Birds [which sold more than 33 million copies], is torn between his idealism and his natural weaknesses as a human being. Ralph de Bricassart is a young Catholic priest who is sent on a kind of punishment-appointment to a remote rural area of Australia where the Cleary family arrives from New Zealand in 1921 to take care of the enormous estate of Mary Carson who is Paddy Cleary’s own sister. Meggy Cleary is the only daughter of Paddy and Fiona who have eight so

Yesterday

With students of Carmel Margaret, are you grieving / Over Goldengrove unleaving…? It was one of my first days in the eleventh class of Carmel Public School in Kerala, the last school of my teaching career. One girl, whose name was not Margaret, was in the class looking extremely melancholy. I had noticed her for a few days. I didn’t know how to put the matter over to her. I had already told the students that a smiling face was a rule in the English class. Since Margaret didn’t comply, I chose to drag Hopkins in. I replaced the name of Margaret with the girl’s actual name, however, when I quoted the lines. Margaret is a little girl in the Hopkins poem. Looking at autumn’s falling leaves, Margaret is saddened by the fact of life’s inevitable degeneration. The leaves have to turn yellow and eventually fall. And decay. The poet tells her that she has no choice but accept certain inevitabilities of life. Sorrow is our legacy, Margaret , I said to Margaret’s alter ego in my class. Let

Octlantis

I was reading an essay on octopuses when friend John walked in. When he is bored of his usual activities – babysitting and gardening – he would come over. Politics was the favourite concern of our conversations. We discussed politics so earnestly that any observer might think that we were running the world through the politicians quite like the gods running it through their devotees. “Octopuses are quite queer creatures,” I said. The essay I was reading had got all my attention. Moreover, I was getting bored of politics which is irredeemable anyway. “They have too many brains and a lot of hearts.” “That’s queer indeed,” John agreed. “Each arm has a mind of its own. Two-thirds of an octopus’s neurons are found in their arms. The arms can taste, touch, feel and act on their own without any input from the brain.” “They are quite like our politicians,” John observed. Everything is linked to politics in John’s mind. I was impressed with his analogy, however. “Perhaps, you’re r