#MumbaiGreying (growing old in Mumbai)
Meet Mithailal of Ghatla Gaon, one of the several villages that the suburb of Chembur gobbled up as it grew. He is 72 years old and seems to be enjoying a happy retired life after working many years for Bharat Sarkar. This is his chair now. from here he watches the world come and go with his head panning like a table fan. His favourite place is outside the Anganwadi in Gaatla where he also listens to the radio.
Next to him is a diary that he diligently fills every day with little things he observes or learns every day. That's not too different from what I do, which is blogging, except that I use photographs instead of words. He showed me notes about interesting people he meets and the conversations he has with them. On the day that I met him, he had some notes about fitness and names of people he met at Diamond Garden, a popular garden near here that morning . He listed out the timetable of the different health and happiness related social groups of seniors who congregate there and their timings. The Laugher Club meets for 5 minutes at 7. Does it take only 5 minutes? Yoga starts at around 7.30, etc.
Like many old people, he has two main activities: some form of light exercise and taking notes or arranging things in order to assist fading memory. If you are developing apps or robots to assist old people, these are two things that you can start your work on. Voice interface would be an interesting addition and yes his name is 'mithai 'or sweet. His cousin, who went to the same class as him was called Mewa Lal. They studied in a village in Jaunpur Dist in Uttar Pradesh.
