Clean sweep in Ganj
LUCKNOW: It was a tryst with nature, flora and fauna for 400-odd elderly citizens of the state capital, who gathered at the Lucknow Zoo on the occasion of World Elder’s Day on Wednesday.
Dressed in colourful outfits, the senior men and women reached the zoo in a bus at around 11am and stayed there till 3.30 pm, enjoying the serene surroundings and clean environment.
The elderly were greeted with a small event in the park area and then taken (on battery-run vehicles) for a ride on the kids’ train to see the various enclosures. They also saw the aquarium, nocturnal house and a magic show and visited the nature interpretation centre.
The special attraction of the event organised by Aastha Centre for Geriatric Medicine, Palliative care and Hospice was release of a bunch of gas balloons in the air with the message ‘Young & old we are all part of the same mould’ by invited guests RC Tripathi, R Ramni, Dr AK Shukla and other eminent people of the city. Speaking on the UN 2014 theme: ‘Leaving No One Behind— Promoting a Society for All,’ Dr Abhishek Shukla said with the changing population, demographic values would also change.
“So we need to improve our attitude towards the elderly and encourage them to be more and more active in society. The elderly shouldn’t be forgotten and treated like lesser members of the society. The take home message for the youth on this Elders Day is: let us treat our elderly the same way as we would like to get treated when we grow old,” said Dr Shukla.