A few years ago when an article was published about how a company in Japan is renting older people as grandparents, to be honest it was an eye-opener about the future and the way we are headed.
I thought Star Wars was futuristic but then this beats it all. Imagine if we have to start renting grandparents in India, what next?
If family structures have to survive and as a human race we want to be able to relate to what family bonding, support and relationships are, then we need to go back or rewind our lifestyle at least 2 decades back, otherwise like the 10 minutes delivery platforms, we will be able to get a parent or a grandparent in 10 minutes.
While on one hand I am a strong supporter of technology, simply because there is no escaping it, however I do not see technology replacing the comfort and support of parents and grandparents especially when our health and/or emotions are running low, at least for the next 5-7 years.
The larger point of debate is, at what stage or by which decade will the human race overcome the need for parents and family support? Probably or maybe the entire institution of marriage, companionship, emotional support will change once AI starts getting more intelligent and we start becoming more attached to the computer program rather than living beings.
Coming back to the existence of Older People in the community, it seems that the way we are headed, either grandparents will become fossil fuel or be found only in museums. Children are becoming less dependent upon parents and as a result the grandchildren will probably never get to see the complete family tree.
The topic of intergenerational activities, bonding and collective growth is an important element in the life cycle of a family, and luckily we had an amazing guest on our Global Experts Interviews podcast who shared her experiences about this subject.
It was a pleasure to have Dr Judith Ish-Horowicz, MBE HonDEd – Co-Founder / Director - Apples and Honey Nightingale CIC and Co-founder of Gen-All with our co-host Dr.Mrigna Nagraj, Founder 50 Plus Assist
Do hear the english version on Elderly Care India YouTube channel.
Pankaj Mehrotra
