19 July,2026 08:16 AM IST | Mumbai | Arpika Bhosale
Sheilu Sreenivasan is the founder of Dignity Foundation. She has taken a step back from active work since the last two months. Pic/Atul Kamble
Ever since humans could, we have been trying to find ways to live longer. At first, it was to save ourselves from plagues and disease. Now, it's more about "hacking" our body in an obsession to live forever.
When longevity enthusiast Bryan Johnson - whose bio reads âwe may be the first generation who won't die' - announced that he was diagnosed with auto-immune gastritis (AIG), other biohackers descended upon his comment section, talking about measurements and blood tests and plasma parameters. To our surprise someone finally commented, "The way I see this is the same way I see it with most people who are stuck with autoimmune disease and feel like they're âdoing all the right things'... And maybe the relentless striving to be perfect with your health - as seen in biohacking, endless testing, and trying to become superhuman - is itself one of the underlying drivers."
On the other end of this conversation is David Attenborough. The natural historian turned a century old on May 8. In an audio message he said, "I had rather thought that I would celebrate my 100th birthday quietly, but it seems that many of you have had other ideas. I've been completely overwhelmed by birthday greetings from preschool groups to care home residents and countless individuals and families of all ages."
While no one hates Johnson, and no doubt people only wish him well, one can't help but wonder if it will be him or Attenborough who will be remembered another 100 years later. And who would you prefer to be remembered as, Attenborough or Johnson?
Sheilu Sreenivasan, 79, is the founder of Dignity Foundation, a leading elderly care NGO
Sheilu Sreenivasan founded the Dignity Foundation back in 1995, but the incident that sparked it occurred a year before, when she came across a senior Indian woman at Frankfurt airport, confused and unable to understand where she was. The woman had been abandoned at the airport maybe by her children and most probably spoke in Sindhi, a language Sheilu didn't understand. Sheilu approached the duty officer at the airport but the incident left a lasting impression on the then 47-year-old who worked with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) at the time. It was also what led Sheilu to quit her job and start a senior magazine called Dignity Dialogue that later become Dignity foundation.
It has been a mere two months since the 79-year-old has taken a step back from running the foundation. "These days I simply see emails and give total freedom to run the Foundation to the Team. After that I take my dogs for a short walk in the Oval," she says.
Talking about bio-hacking, Sheilu jokes that if they test her blood, they will find that dogs run in her blood. "They will find fur instead of plasma," she laughs.
She pauses and says that she has not done anything unique in her life, but adds that starting the foundation from the ground up has probably been her elixir. "I never did anything exceptional, maybe just working for the foundation. But we believe it takes a certain amount of passion and grit to build a system for elder care back when the only option was abandoning your parents in an old age home," she adds.
Right now, Sheilu is refraining from overdoing too much "productive" work, and is trying to just exist after almost 30 years of working. "Even until two months ago, I would still go to weekly meetings at our head office in Byculla and review the work," she says.
Not to sound morbid, she hazards, she has been reading about what happens to life after death. "Normally, Indians do not allow you to talk of death, but at this phase of my life, I am curious as to what will happen next. Where will I go?" she adds.
Vijaya Keshav Dadkar, 86, believes in an active life
Vijaya Keshav Dadkar retired from the State Transport admin office in 1998. She believes that one of the main reasons she has led a long life with almost no ailments is because there was less stress in the analogue era.
"I never had to worry about fitness or health like your generation has had to," she says. Dadkar believes that the fact that a largely stress free life has meant that people of her generation have had longevity baked into their DNA, "We ate home food, and returned to our native village during vacations, when we ate food from the fields and drew water from the wells."
As someone who never married, Dadkar has always stayed self-sufficient. "Even today, I largely cook my own food. I only need someone to cut vegetables for me, since I cannot use the knife safely anymore," she says, "I even wash my own saree, albeit one at a time. All these things put together is probably the reason I am still going strong."
Yasmine Karachiwala, 56, fitness coach
Yasmine Karachiwala is known as the fitness trainer to the stars. For someone who is in an industry where how your body determines careers Karachiwala is more open and curious to know about bio-hacking. "I find bio-hacking fascinating, and I do enjoy learning about new research and tools that can help us understand our bodies better. But I think we've reached a point where people are looking for the next hack instead of mastering the basics," she says. Despite this Karachiwala too is a bit wary about the longevity conversation, "I think sometimes we've become so focused on living longer that we've forgotten how to live well. I work with people who are constantly worried about every calorie, every blood marker, every wearable score. While being informed is important, becoming obsessed can take away the joy of living," she adds.
Sandeep Desai, 63, Tai Chi India founder, believes that bio-hacking goes against nature
Sandeep Desai is 63 years old and was responsible for introducing the original Chen Style T'ai Chi to India in 1998. Also, helps people discover their Ikigai - through mindful movement. "If you want to extend your life, Tai Chi does help, but there is a discipline to life that you must practice. I feel that discipline sets you free rather than tie you down," he says.
Regarding longevity and bio-hacking, he believes it goes against the natural order of things. "If you are constantly going against nature and trying to do something that is not natural, it will backfire," he says. "Tai Chi is one of the most anti-ageing activities and we have seen people benefit from it immensely. Even gardening gives great health benefits," he adds.
Madan Kataria, 70, is the founder of the city's laughter yoga movement in the '90s
When we ask Madan Kataria, who introduced laughter yoga to Mumbai in the 1990s, about what longevity means to him, he has a take that he has been chewing on for a while now.
"There is a difference between lifespan and healthspan. Earlier generations - our fathers and grandfathers - lived healthy and ate healthy food," says the 70-year-old.
Now, he believes the goal is not to live longer, but to live healthy and happy as long as time permits. "In the West, the average lifespan in old age homes has increased up to 85 due to medical advancements, but many are depressed and sad. What kind of life is that? No matter how long your life is, you should live it well, not long," he says.
Kataria adds that happiness is directly related to healthy and therefore our ability to fight off diseases increases.
"It is a well-known scientific fact that your body, brain, and subconscious mind cannot differentiate between real happiness and acted happiness. So, when we discovered Laughter Yoga in 1995, we realised that you don't have to be happy in order to laugh. You can laugh and become happy. We are the original hackers of life," he laughs, on and on until we can't help but chuckle along too.
