The Wisdom Series: Ravi Acharya On Social Activism After Retirement

Silver Talkies Wisdom series is the personal story of older individuals who share their learnings through life. Find stories of resilience and perseverance, helping and assisting fellow community members, mentoring and lifelong learning here. The individuals profiled in the series are members of the Silver Talkies Club.

Professional engagement, community activities, lifelong learning, doing things one loves, and working with the younger generation - These are Silver Talkies member Ravi Acharya’s ways to live an active retired life:

After retiring from IIM Ahmedabad as administrator, Ravi Acharya, 76, worked at FLAME institute, Pune. He was one of the people instrumental in setting up the institute.

His retired life remains full of activity. He is passionately involved with civic activities in his home city Bangalore. He edits for a few publications, as earlier, he had worked as an editor in the publishing industry. This keeps his mind active. To the query of various people on what you do after retirement, he responds, “One retires from a profession, not from life!”

Given his interest in civic pursuits, Acharya is engaged with a social group in Bangalore’s Malleshwaram locality. When he and a few neighbours realised people were not talking to each other despite living close by, they worked towards bringing back the community feeling by starting Tuesday night walks. Gradually more people joined these walks. Gradually these walks became a catalyst for social change. The group observed that street lights were not working and began the process of rectifying them. They ran a campaign called 'Belku Beku' (We want light). Soon, other civic issues emerged, and the group met municipal authorities to resolve various local problems, including the well-known 'Footpath Beku' campaign. It brought Acharya in contact with younger people around the area, who remain his friends. His learning from this experience? One has to work with systems in a collaborative way to get civic issues resolved. 

Acharya is a believer in innovation and collaboration. When he worked for FLAME,  Pune, it was to set up an institute for liberal education. This was a new experiment in changing the education system in India. Setting up FLAME was like establishing a new startup with many challenges and excitement. Finding faculties and students was difficult as liberal education was a new concept. For Acharya and his colleagues, it was a chance to overcome challenges and start something new. Even in retirement, he carries the same belief. At FLAME, Acharya had the opportunity to work with the younger generation, something he does in his civic work to this day. This also helped him transition into retirement and move from one place to another easily after he retired. He believes that one's worldview changes while moving, so travel is important. He has worked in Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmadabad and Pune, all different places culturally. 

Acharya feels active ageing is all about keeping the mind buzzing. He thinks conquering retired life is all about doing things one always wanted but could not do due to other life priorities. His inspiration comes from his father, who was a voracious reader. He even read economics when he visited Acharya at IIM Ahmedabad. Acharya thinks more people need to talk about how they are handling retirement. One way to transition is to take another job, cultivate hobbies like reading, music or watching movies, spend time with the grandchildren, volunteer, and advocate for social issues. Money is an important requirement, but one needs to decide and plan accordingly about how much is sufficient for their needs.

Acharya's wisdom takeaways: 

* Stay engaged with volunteering and civic matters after retirement if these are of interest to you.

• Travel is essential. It changes your worldview.

• Active ageing is all about keeping the mind buzzing and inquisitive.

Photographs courtesy: Ravi Acharya