Chembur grannies grow younger in a unique group

MUMBAI: A well-kept amphitheatre of a housing society in

Chembur

is usually the stage for children's activities. But since January, it has become a meeting point for several women, mostly senior citizens, who have discovered an unlikely guide, friend and fitness guru.

Meet the feisty and slim Mala Mansukhani, who at 60 is grandmother to a 13-year-old, but looks decades younger. Her Facebook page describes her as a "fashion designer, fitness enthusiast, philanthropist and self-proclaimed fittest grandma". Exuding confidence, her untied hair bouncing in the evening breeze, Mansukhani leads from the front, voluntarily helping women her age to remain fit and young at heart.

Mansukhani couldn't have given her initiative a better name than '

Grow Younger Group

'. On Sunday, she and four other women from her group-Neera Rastogi, Rashmi Chopra, Bimal Kumar and Sushma Behel-participated in the Giants Group of Mumbai One's 'walk for a social cause'.

"I was dismayed to see a lot of women getting depressed due to loneliness as they grew older. They were confined mostly to their homes and hardly did any physical exercise. This aggravated their illness and hurtled them towards a miserable condition," says Mansukhani. "I wanted to bring them out of the shells they had put themselves in."

She initially began her coaching from the terrace of her Chembur house (she still does it there for the women of her building). As word spread, many women, including retired teachers, bankers, businesswomen and homemakers, approached her. Neera Rastogi, 66, retired from Acharya Marathe College in Chembur in 2010 after putting in 22 years of teaching. After her daughter settled in the US and son in Bengaluru, a sense of loneliness enveloped her. "I was depressed and gained wait. I would avoid socializing and remained largely confined to my home," she said. Then Mansukhani met her and "intervened". "Now I see a positive change as I have shed weight and gained confidence," Rastogi said.

Sushma Behel, 67, who took VRS from her banking job and joined her husband's business, says that ever since she joined the group, it has been a "pleasant ride". "I feel like I have become a child again. We stretch out, run and dance. I am so enthused that now I have begun bringing my mother too," says Behel even as her wheelchair-bound mother, Sudarshan Varmani, 85, nods. "Yahan achcha lagta hai (It feels nice here)," says Behel's mother. To keep her students involved and entertained, Mansukhani also plays music as she put the group through various exercises.