Are most Indians happy with just living to a ripe, old age?
There is no conception of a good life lived full of activity, independence, strong bones and plenty of muscle. There is also a baffling degree of oversimplified arguments that comes down to my ancestors got everything right, have you seen the Meenakshi temple?
I know how frail and fragile most Indians over-65 are. I see it around me every single day.
In hospitals, in studies, in parks, taking spills in bathrooms, not being able to take the stairs, not being able to hike up hills, there is plenty that is rotten and problematic that is normalised as ‘this is what happens as you age’.
We don’t have to become frail and fragile as we age. We don’t have to lose all our muscle. We don’t have to dramatically scale back our activity levels. And most certainly being ambulatory for a couple of kilometres should not be the only measure of sufficient fitness when older.
There are many capacities of our youth that we can maintain with a little more protein, more vegetables, restricted calorie intake, a little strength training and much better body composition.
A scary number of us don’t seem even remotely curious about these low hanging outcomes. We think we have ageing gracefully nailed down. We are wrong.
