Chennai. I am publishing this in my blog, Merinews, Cplash, Sulekha,
Karmayog and other sites. Vyasamoorthy
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Probus Guide for Seniors
For the eighteenth successful year, Probus Club of Chennai has brought
out this Annual reference book – sort of Almanac. The book may be
considered to be in three parts, though no such distinction is claimed
by the compilers or publishers. First part gives background
information about the club in the form of a note by the President, the
conceptual framework, nostalgic account of how the series of annual
publication began and developed, list of contributors etc. The list
of contributors reads like a who is who among eminent retirees of
Chennai comprising of doctors, psychologists, engineers, teachers,
corporate executives, geriatricians, chartered accountants and so on.
The Educational Assistance offered by the club is commendable: With a
corpus grown to more than ten lakhs (from six lakhs last year),
helping some 55 high school students in four schools is praiseworthy.
This activity will help bridging the generation gap that senior
citizens are prone to suffer.
The second part provides a series of short articles on various topics
of interest to the aged persons like: Law, Safety, Income Tax, Budget,
Religion, hobbies and health. As health appears to be one of the most
important concerns, there are about ten articles in this area alone.
There are three articles in Tamil. There is an account of Chennai in
olden days – Madras: I liked it much as my hometown is Madras. Apart
from signed articles there are a good number of extracts from the
websites on topics like: home remedies, all about blood, quiz on heart
attack, quiz on angina, quiz on Alzheimers, organ donation, ambulance
and emergency services etc. An article on Reverse mortgage is timely
and useful. Among all contributions, there is an odd man out that does
not fit into the theme – you may discover it yourself if you read the
whole book!
The third part is a sort of a directory. Items like Assistive and
Enabling devices, List of NGOs working for seniors, Eye banks, Blood
banks, helpline, important phone numbers, Old age Homes in Chennai and
Tamil Nadu (130 out of 250 covered), Details of Doctors on House call,
Facilities for renting wheel chairs, walkers & the like, diagnostic
labs etc are all given. In the case of Old Age Homes, coverage of
other states and cities has been omitted this year. List of Palliative
care centers in South India is a welcome addition. While we expect a
number of NGOs to be discussed under "Organizations working for the
Elderly" we find only HelpAge being described. List of Ambulance
services (65) is exhaustive. Doctors willing to do house calls
(increased from 50 to 60 in this year) are thoughtfully given area
wise.
The number of advertisements in this 300 pages book has come down from
40 last year to 23 this year – thus increasing the value for your
money! This Annual publication for 2009 is available from Sri KV
Chary, Chennai Ph 24981099 for a nominal donation of Rs 100 plus
postage.
I would strongly recommend this book to all interested in Ageing
related issues and the ordinary retiree looking for a handy book
giving addresses, phone numbers of products and service providers for
his specialized needs.
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