New Delhi, Sept. 24 -- The feeling of loneliness or being detached from one's surroundings is not just a human emotion but a complex response to the lack of companionship. In an affluent country like Japan today, elderly women are resorting to shoplifting small articles like inexpensive clothing, rice and fruits so that they may go to jail. Why? In order to get away from the eerie silence that envelops them at home now that their children have left and resettled elsewhere; they find comfort in the prison environment where they are taken care of and have others to talk to.

In South Korea, impoverished senior citizens visit cheaply-priced colatecs (daytime discotheques) to meet and dance with other seniors to escape feelings of depression ...