New Delhi, April 25 -- Recently, at a luxury wellness retreat in the Sahyadris, I met a senior couple on a three-week programme. The husband, now based in Toronto but originally from around Pune, had returned after 35 years and was throwing himself into the schedule with enthusiasm: trekking up a mountain, attending yoga and Vedanta sessions, staying curious about every part of the stay. His wife was no less game, moving briskly across the hilly property, joining meditation and yoga, and speaking of the whole thing not as a reward but as a long-overdue reclamation. After decades of work and responsibility, they had finally managed to give time to themselves. This, they told me, was their second innings.

That line has stayed with me becau...