It's been so long since I stepped out, I don’t even know where my sandals are,” 78-year-old Harish Gordhan Sutaria jokes over the telephone. Sutaria’s last “real outing” was in February 2020, just a few weeks before the Coronavirus-induced lockdown pulled the plug on his monthly catch-ups with friends from Asmita Senior Citizen Group, a 205-member strong community of elderly residents from South Mumbai. The group was formed sometime in 2003, when Sutaria and his friends, fresh into retirement, would meet at Nana Nani Park in Girgaon Chowpatty for their evening walks. “We decided to start something that would make this new chapter of our life more meaningful and enjoyable,” he shares. Since then, the group has been meeting at least once every month, eating out at a restaurant or watching the latest Gujarati drama in a nearby hall. “Thrice a year, we’d also plan a day-long get-together,” adds Sutaria, who heads the group. “It really gave us something to look forward to.” 
  
Now cooped up in his home, Sutaria says that he and his friends have spent the last many months keeping themselves busy on their smartphones, playing online Housie, and sharing forwards over the WhatsApp group they have created. “I can’t wait to watch a play with them again. I wish it happens soon,” he says. Since all his group members—owing to their age—are at higher risk of being affected by COVID-19, such plans may have to wait. This is why Sutaria has invested so much faith in the vaccine.  

Ena Amelia D’Silva, 67