Kathmandu, October 18:

Elderly citizens residing in the Pashupati Briddhashram today offered tika and blessings to some 70 youths on the occasion of Dashain. The youths, in return, offered delicacies to the elderly citizens.

At a programme held by the Rotaract Club of Himalaya Patan (RCHP), Rotaractors from different clubs received tika and blessings from the elderly people at the briddhashram this morning and offered them food.

Janaki Poudel, 75, offering tika and blessings to the youths said, “It feels like Dashain, finally, others enjoy with their family, but we were here on our own. Today I felt like being at home with my children.”

Bachu Pokahrel, 84, said that the Briddhashram has become his home and the people who come to visit him are the members of his family. “I don’t have family, neither do I remember celebrating Dashain with my family. I have lived all alone for 40 years. But I think home would have been as good as being with these children and eating food as good as this one,” he said.

Sachin Amale, president of the RCHP talking to this daily said: “Old people in the elderly home are shunned from luxury and family and that the club planned to celebrate the festival with the elderly citizens and make them feel happy as Dashain is the greatest festival for the Hindus.”