Every Indian family has a WhatsApp group. Your dad sends Good Morning messages. Your mum shares pictures of what she cooked. Someone sends blurry photos from a wedding. And there's always that one relative forwarding health advice nobody asked for. You probably roll your eyes at half these messages.
When you live abroad, you start looking forward to your trips back to India months in advance. You already know what you want to eat when you get home, which friends you want to meet, and how much time you want to spend with your parents. But every time you visit, you notice something different.
On a Sunday morning in New Jersey, Rahul spent forty minutes talking to his parents in Pune. They discussed everything from cricket to his next visit home. Just before hanging up, his mother casually mentioned that his father had fallen the previous week. He was fine now. They had seen a doctor. But Rahul knew nothing about it!
Your mum tells you she has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. So you make a mental note to call her afterwards. The next day gets busy. Meetings run late. You remember at 8 PM. “Doctor ne kya bola?” “Kuch nahi. Sab theek hai.” You ask a few more questions. She gives you half the details and then changes the subject. “Tu bata. Khana khaya?”
More than 15 million NRIs live outside India, many while their ageing parents remain back home, making everyday health coordination across distance increasingly important.
