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‘What’s so great about being 107?’
Updated On: 25 September, 2023 10:36 AM IST | Mumbai | Mitali Parekh
Sunday mid-day meets Anantshiv Gopal, who may as well be Mumbai’s oldest citizen, to talk to him about the secrets of longevity. Spoilers: There are none
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Thangam and Anantshiv Gopal, flanked by their 11-year-old great grandchildren—Avni and Arjun Shetty. At the back, from left: granddaughter Aruna and her husband Chetan Shetty, son Jayaram and daughter-in-law Uma, and grandson Ajay Jayaram, and spouse Soumya Ravi
In his younger days, when he was just 90 years old, Anantshiv Gopal would travel from Pune to Aurangabad on a public bus for work: To co-ordinate the making of casts for automobile parts. These days, at 107, his biggest regret is that he is not allowed to go out on his own. He walks around the house, is helped by his minder to walk downstairs, and every question we put forth—What was the happiest part of your life, what would you do today if you could, what do you miss the most, all circles back to “I can’t move around anymore. What’s the point?” Even just five years ago, he would have shouted at this pesky reporter and the accompanying photo-journalist: “What rubbish nonsense.” Mellowed, he now just says sternly, “Have you done these kinds of stories before? I think you have enough material now… Please send your report for me to read before you send it to your editor…”
Life, right now, is a strict routine: Just the way he likes it. Rasam rice every day, made from his daughter-in-law Uma’s inimitable recipe, reading two national broadsheet newspapers a day, a plate of seasonal fruit cut and peeled lovingly by his middle son, Jayaram Gopal. News, cricket and tennis on TV, though he’ll be the first one to tell us, “It’s just something to do. I don’t retain any information,” he says. News, above all, is what he lives for. The global, national, and familial. “These people are kind enough to visit me, and from them I know what’s happening in the world and in their lives and our family.”
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