He writes user-friendly recipe books for novices, makes soft chewy guava cheese, mans a suicide helpline and has compiled his favourite party tunes into a book called ‘Noel’s Collection of Golden Oldies’. “I am collaborating on another cookbook specialising in Mangalorean recipes,” says Noel D’souza, an energetic septuagenarian with lots of plans that minor bouts of illness cannot derail. His wife Leela is busy all day supervising her tailoring business and specialising in hand-made smocked dresses for girls. “This is our retirement plan,” they both say.

“To keep as busy and active as possible.”

Dr Marie Mascaranahas’ day involves writing, teaching and counselling. Her seventh reprint of ‘The Challenge’, a book is to be introduced into the academic curriculum by the government. She also runs inter-faith harmony and education programmes for girls with a special focus on nutrition. “We teach from the holy books, the Bhagvad Gita, Bible and Koran so that there is a wonderful sharing and dialogues between people of different beliefs and cultures.’’

Melville Rego, who retired as Air Commodore from the Indian Air Force, has for the last 18 years been dedicating himself to social causes, especially to an organisation named Maria Seva Sangha, which provides mid-day meals to over 2,000 children from 14 different schools every day, scholarships to complete higher education and assistance to old people. ”I felt more rewarded taking up something that gives me tremendous satisfaction especially when I see how kids who benefited from our scholarships have done so well for themselves.’’

“Helping people and becoming proactive can be done with a phone call from your home,” says his wife Jean, who runs a crisis centre for young girls and women in distress, teaches them various trades and skills and helps victims of rape and domestic violence get legal, medical aid as well as give young mothers help with school admissions. “There is so much to be done and so little time,” she says.

Soli Pochkanwala has no time to wallow in self-pity despite losing his wife Katie a few years ago. He retired from HSBC in 1989 and after an active stint as a concurrent auditor in the Middle East is now a trustee of the Bangalore Parsee Zoroastrian Association and is actively involved in social work for the community. “I spend time travelling which I love, going for plays and musical evenings and the gym to keep fit. For me, retirement is just another word like age is just a number,” he says.