kolkata tapati sengupta is 72 now she lost her husband 17 years ago but in many ways she lost him when in the 1980s he fell seriously ill with meningitis and had to shift gears from a high flying corporate job to a sedentary life she saw how he crumbled from a man who was the heart of parties to a man silent and depressed this caused unimaginable distress when she was only a professor supporting the family with an income overnight she turned to becoming the pillar for him and her two young childrentapati senguptaat 55 when she lost her husband sengupta was a teacher at loreto college and didnt get any family pension i missed my husband miserably but i didnt brood over my bereavement she said keeping herself busy with work helped her postretirement in 2006 she began teaching at various universities and also took up the job of secretary of a research institute she also tried her hands at doing new things i became the resource person for emmrc kolkata st xaviers history educational programmes twice every week i go to diamond harbour womens university to take postgraduate classes in history i am happy to be earning and living an independent life sengupta saidsenguptas former colleague sunanda mukherjee is also living life to the hilt mukherjee retired from loreto college in 2005 today she is 73 and lives alone in new alipore after two and a half years of marriage i had filed for divorce and started living with my parents my daughter got married in 1990 and now lives down the road after my retirement i started teaching students for the national eligibility test at the tagore gandhi institute mukherjee saidsunanda mukherjeetravelling mukherjee said is her stressbuster i have a set of 2am friends recently we returned from a trip to amritsar we love to explore new joints in the city besides she loves music and tries not to miss any important concert in the cityninety fouryearold saran singh has been single for 12 years now after losing his wife in 2006 he became involved as the editor of the sikh review its a sikh magazine circulated worldwide editing keeps me busy and connected to the youth he said psychologist shubhika singh advices senior citizens to go back to their hobbies once they retire they can also start learning something which they could never pursue in their youth they should make themselves feel needed for people around by offering their skills singh saidsaran singh