75-year-olds share mantras for positive ageing in book

    New Delhi, Nov 27 (PTI) A new anthology features 50 stories of eminent people productive beyond the age of 75 from all walks of life - celebrities, doctors, artistes, lawyers, and social activists.
    "Mantras for Positive Ageing" ponders upon the belief that the post-pandemic world needs the experience of these people and asks its readers: "As you grow older, would you be interested in remaining optimistic, youthful, and energetic?"
    Among those featured are politicians Karan Singh, Margaret Alva and Mani Shankar Aiyar, gender economist Devaki Jain, lawyer Fali S Nariman, actor Sushma Seth and activists Syeda Hameed, Subhashini Ali, Sunderlal Bahuguna, Kamla Bhasin and Mahatma Gandhi's granddaughter Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee.
    The book, published by Pippa Rann Books & Media, has been brought out to mark NGO Guild of Service's golden jubilee and is co-edited by the organisation's founder chairperson V Mohini Giri, and executive vice-president Meera Khanna.
    It has a foreword by The Dalai Lama. He says many of the contributors to the book are "friends I have known over the years" and "we have grown older together".
    He stresses that the most important thing for everyone is to live our lives meaningfully and refrain from causing harm to others.
    "All the writers have been in search of change and today we celebrate their strength. Their strength in contributing immensely to society and which has helped them to prove that age is only a number. This anthology reverberates with the message that the sky's the limit and the big canvas of the earth is their playground," says Giri.
    For Karan Singh, ageing involves coping with life and coping with death.
    "It is our unique privilege as human beings to be aware of these challenges and to mobilise our physiological, emotional, intellectual and spiritual resources to treat ageing as a unique learning experience which helps us on our eternal spiritual quest," he writes.
    Nariman says he has "just aged, helped along, by the way, by the marvels of modern-day-medicine" and then goes on to add how he had to undergo triple-bypass surgery.
    Age is a measure of time not of health for Sushma Seth.
    "But the idea of ageing is feared as a slow decline of mental and physical faculties. It is important to disregard these ageing myths, cultivate an optimistic mindset, and take steps towards healthy action for long term well-being. We need to disregard the outlook that ageing is unavoidable deterioration. This renewed ageing perspective from pessimistic to optimistic requires us to take health-promoting action and diet," she writes. PTI ZMN RB
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)