Never too old to rock

Come four o’clock and you will find a group of grandmoms and granddads dressed in their striking best.They are preparing to ‘hang out’ with their friends, what many senior citizens call the Me Time. With their lives spent in living for someone else and looking after children, this one hour is something they dedicate to themselves. So where do they all meet?

It’s a place called Coffee Chavadis, popularly known as the Chai Masti Club, run by the Dignity Foundation. These chavadis give that old katte feeling, when old people used to sit, chat and discuss issues for hours together. Only this is way better, they say.

Here, they not only get to socialise over a cup of coffee, they also get to enjoy different programmes every evening. Ranging from movie screenings, dancing, bhajans, debates to painting and competitions and of course, the cup of coffee over which they share more than just life experiences.The place is filled with excitement.

Coffee Chavadis’ fifth chapter is now in Jayanagar and the members say they have found some great friends here. One of the major needs that these chavadis fulfill is that of companionship. “When you get old, people tend to have less time for you, which often leaves you lonely and feel handicapped of sorts. Kattes are great fun but only men get to go out there. Senior women hardly have places to hang out. Places like these help in finding the young person inside you. One completely forgets about the loneliness and coffee sure didn’t seem more enjoyable,” says Yamuna Murthy, who used to be a television artiste.

“Nothing can keep them away from their friends,” says Prema. She was in fact in the hospital for a few weeks but as soon as she was alright to go out, she had to come over and meet her friends. “Senior citizens like us don’t have places where we can go and sit, outside our homes. It’s a great feeling to be here as it’s always filled with life,” she says.
With volunteers readily helping them to get their way around, the members of this club don’t just have leisurely games but computer classes as well.

“I have been a member for almost a year now. And I make sure, I plan my day accordingly, so that I can come here. I enjoy the computer classes, I felt I was so technological handicapped before but now I can easily operate it,” says 60-year-old Parvathy.

“Did you know I am on Facebook?” asks an excited Vasanthi, who is a retired bank official. “It’s so hard to find people our age on Facebook, it’s actually great fun and the day my grandchildren sent me a friend request, I was on top of the world,” she adds.
They spent many memorable moments here but one thing that has stuck in their minds is the cooking class.

“Once, all the men had to come for a cooking class. They were taught how to cook without a gas stove. It was so much fun to watch them and they actually did a good job,” says Mrinalini Padmanabhan.

The place has left an impact in many ways and as they say, “let’s enjoy life over a cup of coffee.”