ROCKING RETIREES: Anil Thapar (right) at his flying school and Meena Vohra at her pottery workshop

They call themselves the ‘Romeos’. Visit a local park in Bangalore’s Banaswadi Colony any evening and you’ll find this group of men feasting and gossiping at the nearby tea shop. The scene is cacophonous. Someone’s shouting for idlis, someone for a coffee refill, while others are discussing world affairs threadbare.

There’s nothing romantic about these Romeos, though. They are all 60 years old or more and Romeo is short for Retired Old Men Eating Out. “We meet every day for snacks and gossip,” says 75-year-old B.K. Satyanarayana, the brain behind the club.

When N. Kumar got permission to trek to the protected Nanda Devi sanctuary in 2002, he was ecstatic. It never occurred to the chief executive officer of Mercury Himalayan Explorations, the Delhi-based adventure travel firm, that he was 69 and would find it tough to walk for 18 days at an altitude of 15,000 ft.

Problems did crop up. “We climbed 6,000 feet a day. I felt tired and my pace was slow,” recalls Kumar. But the sight of the Nanda Devi washed away all annoyance. Five years on, the 74-year-old CEO continues his rendezvous with the mountains. “I drive to Ladakh more often than I do to Chandini Chowk,” he chuckles.

Clearly, the old are rocking — and not on rocking chairs either. Senior citizens in India are doing things that the previous generations never thought possible. They are clubbing, flying, climbing up mountains, rafting down rivers and even saying ‘I do’.

Old age is no longer a time to turn into a sissy. Cinema and television seem to be showing the way, too. A 64-year-old pony-tailed man marries a woman half his age in Cheeni Kum while an old man lusts after a woman his daughter’s age in Nishabd. A television advertisement has two grey-haired sisters travelling miles to wish their younger brother — himself a venerable geriatric — on his birthday.

According to HelpAge India, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) for the aged, India has 81 million senior citizens — people over 60 years of age. Of this, 51 million live below the poverty line. “For the rest, retirement now means opening new doors, both work and leisure-wise,” says Mathew Cherian, chief executive, HelpAge India.

That is why Satyanarayana, a retired Indian Railway official, started his Romeo club 10 years ago. The club — which started with 15 members — now has 60 members. It also offers pranayama and laughter yoga sessions, says Satyanarayana, who holds that he finds retired life more hectic than his government job.

When Dignity Foundation, a Mumbai-based NGO floated the concept of active ageing in 1995, there were few takers. Today, the senior citizens’ association has 50,000 members — with most people joining the group in the last five years. “An attitude of positive ageing is building among senior citizens because they are leading longer and healthier lives,” says Nandita Banerjee, manager, Dignity Foundation.

Members of the foundation’s Chai Masti Club can learn Tai Chi, dance, music and painting. The foundation also offers computer training and liaises with companies to help its members find jobs. Another one of its popular clubs is Bridge Group. “We sent 60 participants to the National Bridge Tournament last year,” says Banerjee.

HelpAge India started a retirement planning programme two years ago. “We hold lectures and seminars for people who have turned 50 where we list the various post-retirement work and leisure options they have,” says Cherian. The NGO has conducted seminars in 300 companies and in the armed forces.

But many seniors don’t need NGOs to keep themselves occupied. In 1952, the Mumbai-based Kewal Semlani organised a strike of 3,000 students because school fees had been increased by eight annas. The social activist in him then took a back seat as he plunged into business. It resurfaced 51 years later.

At 67, Semlani started Mahadhikar, an NGO in Mumbai that fights for the right to information. Semlani had already had a by-pass surgery and has four stents in his heart. He says he’s living on borrowed time. “So, whenever a serious builder-related issue comes up, I am the only one who goes forward to fight,” he laughs.

The collapse of the joint family system, too, has forced old folks to find new hobbies and occupation. When the Delhi-based Meena Vohra’s three children settled abroad, she refused to fill her days by giving them miss-you calls. Instead, the retired school teacher began learning pottery. “Now I don’t find time to call my children,” says the 62-year-old grandmother of five, who has a website to showcase her work. Vohra has already had three solo exhibitions.

Increasing opportunities have opened up new work avenues for the old. “Sitting on your rocking chair is no longer the only option left,” says Anil Thapar, a retired Indian Air Force officer who runs a flying school in Delhi. The sexagenarian runs the marathon and will participate in an international hand gliding rally in Rajasthan next year.

One of the reasons the old are increasingly turning towards outdoor activity is that many have lived their working lives locked up in office cubicles. “After retirement, they want to break free. They also have the money to splurge,” says Kumar of Mercury Himalayan Explorations. He says there is a marked increase in the number of retired people signing up for wildlife holidays, river rafting and desert jeep safaris.

When 73-year-old S.K. Mathur visited Australia last year, he asked his travel agent to make the most off-beat holiday itinerary for him. “I was not interested in doing the typical Sydney-Melbourne circuit,” says Mathur, a retired army officer. So he went scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, back-packed by bus through the deserts of central Australia, climbed the Kings Canyon — a barren, rocky ridge in Alice Springs — and went on jungle treks in Tasmania. “Even my friends in Australia had not visited Tasmania,” says Mathur proudly.

Marriage has also broken age barriers. A growing band of retired men and women are tying the knot, age no bar. “In the last six months, there has been an exponential growth in the numbers of senior citizen matrimonial profiles posted on our website,” says Sumeet Singh, national head, marketing, Info Edge (India) Ltd, which runs Jeevansaathi.com. Although Singh won’t give out figures of senior profiles on the website, she says that loneliness is driving more and more senior citizens to look for late life partners.

Clearly, retired doesn’t mean tired any more.