For 76-year-old Lalit Mohan Laknotia, Primus has turned out to be a boon for life. The retired engineer, who is now financially independent, finds his life to be much better now as Primus takes care of all his needs and enables him to enjoy a luxurious life.
"My son is in the US, my daughter is also well placed in Bhubaneswar. So, we had nobody to take care of us in Jamshedpur... Then we were looking for a proper place you know senior citizens enclave, we chose Bengaluru because we found the environment and process much better, we found it is very attractive and the facility provided includes laundry, medicines, medical facility. Every facility that we wanted," Laknotia said.
India has nearly 120 million senior citizens and every year this number is increasing at the rate of 3.8 percent.
Over the past few decades, the concept of joint families has seen a massive fall with the parents often living apart from their children who move across continents to work and settle.
Aadarsh Narahari, Managing Director of Primus, started out with this concept of homes for senior citizens on the outskirts of Bengaluru away from the hustle of city life, designed to look after the needs of people in the age group of 55 years and above who can't look after themselves.
"We are still used to the days where somebody used to call up, place where seniors reside in old age home so my very first motivation to start this community was to change this very notion of old age homes, so you are here with us today, you are seeing the facilities, you are seeing the standard of care, the standard of infrastructure and luxury we are providing here, so this is my first motivation is to dispel this notion of old age," Narahari said.
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Primus provides its buyers with lease and sale models, both of which give out facilities like restaurants, gyms, temples, golf courses and housekeeping.
They are also provided with services like a nurse, cleaning and cooking if in case they are disabled or bedridden.
The residents like Vatsala Vithal are happy and satisfied with the services provided, as this luxury lifestyle keeps them active and better looked after along with building their own community of people.
She doesn't seem to mind living away from their children, as they have a better place to lead the rest of her life.
"Well to be honest, children are so well settled, they really don't need us anymore, and they have been so independent so many years of their life. Now, we thought it is not fair to go and dump ourselves on them, they have their life to lead and here we found everything... the ambience, the peace and more than anything I have time for myself," said Vatsala.
Primus not just provides them with a good living space, but also enough activities like billiards, carom, yoga, table tennis and swimming pool to keep them active and engaged.
The senior citizens at Primus now have become much more aware and independent of their needs. However, this sector in India is still not regulated by the government.
Analysts say luxury retirement homes should be encouraged, as with changing times, senior citizens do not mind living away from their children.
"We have farmhouses and other things, just for the sake of fun, parties etc. These retirement houses are a need and the community of people within themselves will take care of each other. And the young generation - I am not saying they are bad - they may be too busy too pre-occupied to take care of their parents," said an analyst.
