Housing communities for senior citizens look like attractive options

The rise of such communities owes to many factors, such as the disappearance of joint family structures

Every evening in Neral, a town in the foothills of Matheran in Maharashtra, a group of seven or eight people gather without fail on a deck outside their dining hall. They swap stories while they wait for the spectacle of the Neral-Matheran “toy train” zig-zagging through the Western Ghats.  

“Some of us can see the train from our rooms, but it’s much more fun to do it together. It’s part of our routine,” says septuagenarian Usha Mantri. The train passes around 6.30pm, a time ripe for gossip as they wait for the stars to light up the quiet countryside. “You