Bengaluru, Gurugram: Each evening, a retired IAS officer in his late 70s packs a small bag, tucks in his passport and a handmade “boarding pass,” and announces, “I have a flight tonight.” The security guard checks his ID, offers him a seat in the lounge, and brings him a coffee. Minutes later, the dementia patient wanders back to his room at Frida Epoch Elder Care in Gurugram — and repeats the ritual the next morning.

Dementia couldn’t take away his discipline and his identity–only the reason for it.

Such repeated rituals are the face of daily struggle at the centre. In another room, a retired Hindi teacher arrives for day care, ready to teach with her notebook. Caregivers become her students as she writes, corrects, and signs her “pay slip” in a mock ledger before leaving, satisfied t

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