These seniors prove age is just a number

With no scope for meeting fellow members, senior citizen associations have turned to webinars and online shows to keep themselves entertained

Prior to the world as we know it came to a grinding halt and the new normal became loading up on sanitisers and not venturing out without wearing masks, Dr P Vyasamoorthy was part of not one, but three senior citizen associations where he played an active role in arranging discussions, bringing in guest speakers and initiating new members.

Post-pandemic, all meetings of Senior Citizen Forum, All India Senior Citizens Confederation, Senior Citizens Forum, Association of Senior Citizens, Aasara, Telangana United Federation of Senior Citizens Associations, Indian Society of U3As; organisations he is part of have gone online. “We started conducting webinars online within months of the lockdown.

Initially, we had our hiccups as many members were not tech-savvy. There were many instances of camera facing the ceiling or the wall and we had to tell them basic etiquette to follow about how to present oneself in front of the camera,” explains Dr Vyasamoorthy who is a retired IT and library consultant.

But despite the tech challenges, the 76-year-old mentions that some members manage to hoodwink others into thinking they are actually attending the webinar by placing framed pictures in front of the camera to avoid being seen.

Organisations such as HelpAge India and Silver Innings are conducting workshops across a wide range of topics such as health, fitness for seniors, pranic healing, mental health and dementia learning of Covid for seniors, meditation, Tai chi and even a garba dance workshop which was organised by The Rotaract Club of Hinduja College. It has also motivated seniors into learning to use apps like Gpay, PayTm, using Instagram and editing photos.

Senior citizens are having a ball taking part in online talent shows where they get a chance to dress up and show off their talent to an audience that is no longer limited by geography. Josh for Senior Citizens 2020 which took place online through Zoom between October 4 and 8 and witnessed a heavy participation from the elderly across the country.

“Most were singing, but there were also those performed in full costumes solo or in groups and did mimicry. The talent show was done in batches of morning and evening. The whole idea was to motivate the seniors to get more tech savvy and keep them engaged despite missing the face-to-face element,” adds Shalmalee, consultant with Vijaya Vahini charitable foundation who was part of the collaboration for JOSH with Tata Trust.

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