Lonely in Life and Death: India’s Deepening Social Void
A woman watches last rites of her father on her mobile phone. (Image video grab)
By MANISH ANAND
From elderly parents dying unnoticed at home to children outsourcing their final rites, a disturbing pattern of social isolation is emerging in an India racing toward 2047.
New Delhi, August 16, 2026 — A viral video showed a woman witnessing cremation of her father on mobile phone. She paid a total of ₹5100 to cremation workers for the last rites of her father. Details stated that the deceased was a well-off, who lived in an old age home before his death. In life, he created assets and sent children for good education. In the end, his children had no time to look after him and found an old-age home.
A few months ago, a well-known doctor in Haryana was found living in his house alone but neighbours were alarmed as he had not been seen for weeks. With efforts of the police, the house was broken. The man was found to have been surviving on whatever he could bite. He was wearing same clothes for weeks. He smelt so foul that neighbours had to cover their noses.
The doctor’s children lived in the US. They hadn’t called him for ages. He was abandoned by his children whom he had raised lavishly.
In another video, one man poured his anger on internet for the apathy of his US-settled friend. In this case, the father of the man’s friend lived alone, while ailing. Friends pooled efforts to give the elderly healthcare.
When the old man died, the US-based son sent ₹51000 to his friend to get the cremation done. He had key business meetings in the US that didn’t allow him to attend to the cremation of his father.
In another case, in Old Rajinder Nagar in Delhi, two elderly sisters were found dead in their house. They lived together, alone. They died, almost together. Neighbours claimed that they had died of age-related issues. In this case, the neighbours found out when they grew suspicious after smelling stench.
Those who have been to Europe claim that the trend had already been seen in the western world. Elders die alone — unattended and uncared for. India, aspiring to be a developed nation by 2047, is in midst of successful business models, which are simply copycats of their US peers.
In social life, India also seems catching up with the western world. Relationships have ruptured, evidently.
Indian philosophy over the ages has produced voluminous accounts of renunciations. Detachment is the path to salvation, say the books.
In cases of the elders being abandoned, the generation of men and women in their 50s and 60s seem to have coldly detached from their life givers. This detachment model was certainly not espoused by the books of philosophy in India.
Time inherently triggers degeneration. Science calls it mutation. Socially, degeneration is compounding.
The Gen Z has built their lives around gadgets. Their parents are paranoid — what if the children break the delicate thread that binds their relationships.
In 1992, a French youth wrote a letter to an Editor, questioning an editorial that had castigated the young generation of France for holidaying abroad while their parents died in old-age homes which were engulfed in wildfires. The youth wrote: we simply followed tradition as our parents were also holidaying when their elders died alone.
In South Korea, in the aftermath of the global financial meltdown after the collapse of financial behemoths in the US, the people went broke. They lived alone, cut off from their relations. They died alone. Stench from apartments announced their deaths. A group of people launched a campaign to give a respectable cremation of the dead.
Social rupture is also global. India is catching up with winds blowing in advanced world.
The most lucrative business model arguably may be old-age homes. Money can arrange for caregivers. Realtors can create building blocks where the elders can pass their times in the last phase of their lives. Their children will not be bothered and disrupted in their busy lives. Business meetings and presentations help create wealth.
There are indeed a few who ask: how much money you need to live. The question can also be modified: what will the money do that you so passionately chase for. In the end, you will also be abandoned.
On the coastal road in Mumbai, the sight of the tall building of Raymond unleashes the lament — this is the building which expelled the man who built a business empire, by his own son.
The money can buy apartments and even villas. At a paramilitary guesthouse in Kathgodam in Uttarakhand, an elder celebrated his birthday with friends. The phone rang. His daughter wished him. “You went for quite an extended vacation to Bangkok,” said the man, passing his phone to wife as he showed least interest in talking to the daughter. The wife enquired about her grandchildren. The man busied talking to his friend.
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