Week 1480 - Why I Like Being a Senior Citizen in India

15 advantages of being a senior citizen

Bhavin Jankharia

26 Sep 2026

This is crossposted to www.atmasvasth.com

In my 50s, I would get angry at people who called me "uncle" or treated me as an "old person". At 60, I no longer care.

This piece was triggered by a Substack titled "I Got Older. When Exactly Did I Become a Blasted Idiot?", where the author is pissed at being treated with deference or with kid gloves and hates it when people try to help him or are patronizing.

We live in a country where people are naturally rude and impolite. But when you look old with white hair, even the most obnoxious person becomes better behaved towards you. I will take all of the good behavior and deference and kid glove treatment and special and preferential treatment I get, if all it means is that I have to just be myself.

Here is what I can do or get.

Out in the world

1. At airports when a buggy just comes out of nowhere and the driver asks you where you would like to go, because they see you are old. Or when you land at T2 and there is a buggy waiting outside and you have to walk 1 km to the exit and they are happy to take you there…I run and workout, but hey…I am more than happy to sit in a buggy after a flight and not have to walk lugging my bags.

2. Speaking to the police. A couple of times when my driver has broken a signal and been stopped, I have gotten down and spoken to the cop in Marathi and just one look at me speaking a mix of Anglicised and Gujartified Marathi and they have let us go…of course they have photographed and sent challans for payments….but no harassment.

3. People holding doors or letting you go first…this happens sometimes…and almost always with GenZs and young Millennials. Nice.

4. Carrying things. People are always waiting to carry your things for you. Here I balk, because fundamentally I don't like the concept of others carrying what I can and so I don't hand over, unless I have too many things, or if the bags are really heavy.

Time and money

5. The separate counter. At many places including some airline counters, there is often a separate line or counter for senior citizens. Yay…I will always, always use it or take it.

6. Discounts on all kinds of things for being a senior citizen. Why would I refuse? Or that extra 0.5% interest on fixed deposits? Why would I not take that?

Getting out of things

7. "At my age…" are probably the three most useful words, I can use these to get out of all kinds of social functions that I have no interest in attending or are extremely inconvenient. The same is true of leaving functions early. No one says anything anymore. That also applies to getting out of speaking invitations, traveling to conferences and all kinds of unnecessary nuisances.

8. Not running around anymore, especially for organizing functions and events. The younger kids are more than happy to do this and if you just put up your legs and don't do anything, no one says anything. That is also probably why suddenly there are no school or college reunions, which were all the rage just 10 years ago, because we are all in the same boat…no one wants to do extra work and there are no youngsters to take up the baton for this.

Being allowed to be yourself

9. Saying what you think. You can say pretty much what you want and you can get away with it…they “will just say, he is like that only". The older you are, the easier it is.

10. Asking a "stupid" question. If I get up and ask something stupid or weird at a conference or a meeting, it is answered with respect. And if I make a comment, it is given respect, irrespective of how relevant it is or not.

11. Repeating myself. The same stories that I continue to tell…the family hates them because they have heard them ad nauseum…veryone else loves them.

12. Forgetting names and people. All acceptable now. No one gets upset…except of course people your own age or older.

13. Clothes. No one cares what you wear at functions, as long as you don't land up looking like a tramp.

14. Babies. Not having to go ga-ga over everyone else’s grand-children or children or hell…just babies in general…is such a relief. They really get interesting only after age 10 or so anyway.

15. Reminiscing about the good old days. You are allowed to…not that the days were particularly good, but still.

The only qualification needed for any of this is that I have to look old, and since that is going to happen anyway whether I fight it or not, I might as well take the buggy, take the 0.5%, take the chair offered, let others work if they offer to and get on with the rest of it.

The Concept Explained

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