Antara: Living life on one's own terms

On the face of it, the couple had no need to move out of New Delhi. Sunil had a successful career in corporate India. He last worked in Mumbai with a well-known logistics company before moving to Gurgaon after retirement with his wife, Neena, an artist and homemaker, to a smart apartment in a very desirable gated community. The apartment in an amaltas lined boulevard, is charming - masks from many cultures and countries the couple have travelled to, adorn the walls. Family photos abound. The sitting room has those deeply comfortable, squishy chairs that are so particular to aristocratic homes. The apartment had been inherited by Sunil from his mother, an indefatigable builder who over the years, and with determined prescience, had built houses and acquired apartments for her three sons. The gated community in Gurgaon, with a clubhouse and swimming pool along with the people they enjoy meeting, is a great place to live in, yet the Nehrus felt they needed something more.

Sunil, with the look of a cheerful, rosy cheeked Santa says, "Our son lives in London and our daughter is married into a joint family in Delhi. We have two lovely grandchildren who are busy spinning around doing their thing as teenagers do." Are they lonely? "Not particularly so," says Neena, an alert, perceptive woman with a smart, cropped haircut. "We feel that as we get older, and families become busier with their own lives,we want to be around like-minded people where the likelihood of making new friends is greater." Add to that, the fact that Delhi's ghastly pollution had begun taking its toll. With Sunil succumbing to frequent attacks of bronchitis, the Nehrus decided to look at Antara Senior Living, in the more salubrious environs of Dehradun, as an alternative.

There was more; Sunil is a keen trekker and both he and Neena love the outdoors. Sunil goes trekking every year. The escape into the tranquility of the high mountains is an essential part of his annual calendar. He seems to find more peace in an alpine meadow than in a smart restaurant. After each trip into the mountains, he has returned to the city rejuvenated, refreshed. Antara's location, in this respect too, suited the couple well.

Antara is set in a vast 14 acres buffered by a river on one side, and forests and mountains on the other, in the hamlet of Purukul in Dehradun. There's a 50,000 square feet clubhouse, individual apartments that define luxury, easily accessible medical facilities, 24/7 medical help and many facilities to deliver a life of grace and dignity. This is holistic living in the truest sense of the word,with opportunities for developing body, mind and wellness, through art & craft activities, in-house seminars, learning photography, cooking or musi There are noted NGOs in the area, in whose activities residents can participate. Safety is assiduously maintained with round-the-clock security, boosted by CCTV camera installations all over the property.

Talking to the Nehrus one gets a sense of meeting a couple with strong convictions and an even stronger streak of independence; Neena's parents lived with them for the last few years of their lives and both she and SSunil were the primary care-givers for them. Do they perhaps want to be free ofbeing a burden to anyone else? It's never articulated fora moment, but this refined, cultivated couple with such enormous dignity about them wouldn't need to answer a question like that.

"Swimming, yoga, trekking in the hills - getting a hiking group together, bringing a book club to fruition, these are the things I want to do at Antara," says Neena beaming. Sunil, who has always been keen on music, hopes to start playing the guitar again. "Our families have taken our decision very well, and we also trust the Max name - I was fortunate to have worked asa strategy consultant with them, and know them and their values well, so making a choice, really, was quite easy for us," says Sunil. Not that there weren't any doubters - the couple are often cross-questioned by friends - why now? Why senior living? Why Dehradun? The Nehrus had their answers ready; our choice, our life and a better life than in this city.

As the couple starts planning their move to this little piece of heaven in Purukul, are they setting other hearts aflutter at what those in the city may be missing? Perhaps. Meanwhile Antara beckons.