STARTUP WITH A SOUL

India is getting older and lonelier, and that is where The Goodfellows come in, pairing youngsters with senior citizens and offering them comfort, care and company

- POOJA BIRAIA

AT A RECENT graduation ceremony in Mumbai, a man in his eighties stood out. He was no parent, neither a professor, yet there he was, standing quietly in the crowd. When the young woman on stage saw him, she broke into a smile, walked down, and pulled him into the frame. "He is the most special person in the crowd," she said, wrapping an arm around him. To her, he was family. The applause that followed was not just for her. It was for the bond they had built—one weekly visit at a time. That moment was not staged. It was a snapshot of the ethos of The Goodfellows, a social enterprise that pairs young adults (called goodfellows) with grandpals—senior citizens who live alone or crave meaningful companionship.

In that college, at that time, it was a grandpal who had come to attend the graduation ceremony of his goodfellow.

The WhatsApp group chat of The Goodfellows buzzes with glimpses of more such heartwarming interactions. There is a video of an octogenarian opening a birthday card she had made for her college-going goodfellow Kartik. Then there is a selfie that a young Vaibhav took along with his Anuradha aunty inside a metro, her first ride after years of being homebound.

India is growing older. With more than 150 million citizens aged 60 and above and rising urban migration among younger generations, a silent crisis is brewing—that of isolation. The Goodfellows didn't come from a think-tank or business plan, but out of one young man's decision to spend time with an elderly couple during the Covid-19 lockdown. "Uncle and Aunty Punjabi fed me well," says founder Shantanu Naidu, 33. "I gave them my time."

That gift—time—turned into the company's mission. "I realised companionship was missing from the lives of our elderly," says Naidu. "And I thought, what if we made that the central offering?"