'We are independent, not lonely'.

Ninety-four-year-old Srinivasalu hops out of his bed in the men's dormitory and optimistically utters in Kannada: "I don't have any health problems, I am absolutely fit and fine." Having spent 12 years in the Asaktha Poshaka Sabha old age home, he speaks of having been left at the old age home as a distant memory that hardly stings him. "A home for the old is good for us. We have all the facilities we ever need and there's nothing we can complain about." Though he does have some distant relatives visiting him once in a while, he says that he doesn't like mingling with them much, as most relatives feel that senior citizens want money and resources from people and that, he says, isn't true. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]