Notes from Dehradun

By Raul Dias

If there ever was a place in India that held the greatest threat to a prepubescent me, it would have to be Dehradun. The mere mention of the word “Dehradun” was enough to see me throw the mother of all tantrums, because of the Uttarakhand State capital’s prowess as the country’s de facto boarding school stronghold. Schools like the mighty Doon School are legendary for ‘straightening out’ obnoxious little tykes. Schools I’d be threatened to be banished to, if I continued to — to use my dad’s favourite verb — misbehave.

But all that changed a few weeks ago, when I found myself in my former bête noire to visit a recently-widowered uncle who was contemplating a major lifestyle change. A resident of the bucolic valley nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas for almost half a century, my uncle was planning on selling his home and moving into what he jokingly called a “boarding school for senior citizens” down the road from his pretty cottage in the city’s Purukul neighbourhood.

As it so happens, no longer is Dehradun’s main calling card its impressive phalanx of boarding schools. For the last decade or so, senior citizens from around India and the world have been flocking to this north Indian town en masse to spend the rest of their years in a serene and peaceful environment. They do this by either buying or renting retiree-friendly homes, or like my uncle, consider shifting into an assisted living facility such as the Antara Senior Living gated community. The year-old facility is a luxurious continuous care proposition offering 200 bespoke apartments on lease that are built over 14 acres, all overlooking the mist-shrouded mountains.

Intrigued by this idea, I decided to visit the facility with montages of the 1985 Hollywood movie Cocoon — where members of a similar assisted living facility rediscover their youth thanks to extra-terrestrial intervention — flashing through my mind.

With an intake age cut-off of 55 years and above, the facility is strictly for senior citizens who live in their own independent apartments that have everything a ‘normal’ flat would have, including staff quarters, but with senior-friendly accoutrements like skid-proof tiling and strategically located panic buttons if assistance is ever required.

But it’s not all about plush, independent apartments and heated indoor pools that make Dehradun a retiree-haven. Offering a more basic, hands-on approach, the Happy Home Senior Citizens Care on the Shimla Bypass Road is a home where seniors can rent rooms and live in a communal set up with meals, and activities like hikes enjoyed as a group, with medical care offered round-the-clock.

Off Dehradun’s Old Mussoorie Road, the Senior Citizen Complex is just like any other co-operative housing society, save for one important detail. All of its 136 apartments are owned by senior citizens aged 55 and above, and it offers everything from communal dining, and prayer halls, to a library and even a guest house for visitors. The complex even has a team of caregivers, along with periodic visits by doctors and other medical specialists.

And while I still don’t know about my uncle’s plans, give me another four decades or so and I might very well find myself committing to spend the autumn of my life there. Yes, in dreaded Dehradun!

(An edited version of this article first appeared in the 1st July 2018 issue of The Hindu newspaper's Sunday Magazine section on page 7 https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/travel/notes-from-dehradun/article24288342.ece)