Dear Krish Sir,
It is said that P S is the most important part of a lady's letter. Likewise, the last line of your post has the most important point.
Most of the dependent parents suffer since it is NOT easy to get a d i l who will think her parent in-laws as her own parents!!
all parents who are old require physical proximity to children. most are dependent on pension which may not be high
the challenge is how to use the marginal money seniors have to create dependence of children on them.
Dil may have needs. in case of working women it can be someone who will be substitute parents. for .children. besides , these ladies need back up from their families. one way is to trade services of boys parents and marginal money for food and stay with children and use girls parents as a further back up
alternately stay separate with doles from children. every retired man has the protective instinct to have a few lakhs of deposit . this he should multiply using it as risk capital. for that the seniors should have appetite for taking risk.frankly I do not think it is very difficult to generate wealth with some seed capital to become financially viable in a few years.
frankly if children do not support , find people even strangers who have a need for services of senior people and trade with them for accomodation and food
I know people who have taken flats/houses on rent and partially sublet to recover the rent. they offer PG accomodation to single ladies. they feed the single ladies and cover their own food expenditure. you can live on minor seed capital pretty well.
there is a lot of oppurtunities for senior people . only one has to look around and have the will to live well independantly.
dependance on children is not wise.
well this has been my philosophy of living . I have never felt that there is shortage of money for anything.