Ageless Mind and Spirit: Faces and Voices from the World of India’s Elderly is a book of 400 portraits, part of an ongoing project since the mid-1990s across India. Many of us were fortunate to have lived/grown up in homes with our grandparents. But today’s nuclear families don’t have the time, space, or money to afford extensive joint families. So where do our old end up? Some have the money to survive, others may have good health, but the critical need in old age is emotional well-being. Having no one around in the autumn of your life is a tough predicament, leading to mental health issues. Once HH Dalai Lama told me that as a society, we help children at every step of growing up, fulfilling all their physical and emotional needs. As adults, we are about unconditional love for the young, but when a person grows old and needs the family the most, why are they ignored? Below are six photographs from the book.
(Photography and Text: Samar S. Jodha; Research and editing: Vijay S. Jodha; Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama)
(This appeared in the print edition as "Twilight Tenderness")
Samar S. Jodha is an artist and photographer