REMEMBERING RATAN TATA FOR ELDER CARE

Few days back, I had written a Blog on intergenerational relationships in my website highlighting the magical effect of children’s company on the lives of senior citizens. Today I write on the same topic to remember one of our most respected countrymen, Shri Rata Naval Tata. Goodfellows is a Ratan Tata backed Startup that connects lonely senior citizens to youth. Launched in August 2022, this Startup was founded by Shantanu, a general manager in Tata’s office and later aided by two like-minded persons, Niki and Gargi. Tracing back to how it all shaped up, Shantanu credits a natural affinity for the silver-haired, gold-hearted people as he fondly calls them. As soon as I enter a room, I tend to gravitate towards the senior citizens, he says. Determined, Shantanu advertised a story in 2021 to connect the elderly folk of Mumbai with the city’s youth and this was soon flooded with responses.

The trio identified themselves as goodfellows i.e. found themselves bonded to elderly people and as vice versa, elderly found them not only as their company but also as their buddies, something akin to a grandparent and grandchild bonding duo. The trio, at least one of whom did not have the opportunity of growing with grandparent had a sense of altruism particularly towards those elderly who were lonely, had difficulty doing their tasks and wanted some company. A meticulous pairing process was drawn up to recruit many other goodfellows who could be appropriately paired to spend time with specific grandpals, a term popularly referred to the elderly counterpart of this 2-way beautiful partnership.

2-way it is because the grandpal in the company of his goodfellow experiences physical, social and cognitive happiness while the goodfellow reaps the satisfaction of helping and making someone happy during his career job. This social venture has many intertwined dimensions which can address caregiving as well as unforeseen errands in the lives of both parties. Psychologic and Counseller services are available when needed. Such model in other cities outside Mumbai have started.