Shrinking family sizes makes survival difficult for the elderly in Chennai

Besant Nagar is one of those ageless residential areas with a considerable retired population. It was in the early 1970s, the Housing Board Society conceived this neighbourhood for the middle-class residents of a fast growing city.

It was only in the 1980s and 1990s that Besant Nagar acquired a snob appeal. But the reality is different today.In these forty odd years those who first settled in the area as young parents, are now in their late seventies and eighties themselves. Families have shrunk in size, their sons and daughters abroad, and they are very much left to fend for themselves.

Mr. Swaminathan is a typical representative of this segment. He is a 78 year old widower, who spends four hours a day doing temple activities. He says, “As long as my wife was there, I never had to bother about food. After her death, a couple of years back, I engaged a cook. But cooking for a solitary person is prohibitively expensive. That’s when I started ordering dabba meals.”

This does away with cooking and a lot of encumbrances from gas cylinders, groceries, vegetables, washing utensils. In fact the kitchen gets bare except for making occasional coffees and teas.

Dabba meals or carrier meals is supplied by half a dozen caterers in the neighbourhood. Any resident in need of breakfast or lunch can call these caterers – who advertise in the neighbourhood papers like Adyar Times and Adyar Talk – and place an order. Within half an hour a delivery boy comes with a carrier containing curries, samber, rasam, and kuttu.

The resident transfers them to his/her utensils and pays for the order. The going price is Rs.75 to Rs.90 for a meal for two people. All that they need to do is keep the boiled rice and have curds to complete a three course meal.

Swaminathan says, “The food is barely satisfactory. Sometimes I feel so sick of the quality that I cook myself. I only order from the caterers and restaurants for psychological reasons for I hate to cook for myself.”
Meenakshi who is 82 concurs,” It gets difficult at my age to go shopping for groceries and vegetables. Dabba meals are convenient but they need to improve on quality. The rasam is so diluted and since we pay so much, they must use better quality ingredients.”

Her neighbour is a young family and more than willing to support her with dishes but Meenakshi wouldn’t hear of it. She says philosophically, “It is enough if they call the ambulance services when I have a heart attack and inform my son in Colorado. This daily charity of food would fill me with self-pity and it is something I can do without.”

I spoke to a couple of others who order dabba meals. They like the concept but feel the quality of food must improve. Said one resident, “We are willing to pay more but please don’t insist on making absurd profits, deceiving those very near to the grave.”

All this goes on to show that modern society has furnished us with a lot of comforts, but somewhere along the line, family bonding has weakened.

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