ShantiNiketan, about 35 miles northwest of Orlando, is the first retirement community in the United

(29 Jul 2014) A growing trend for baby boomers looking for a place to retire to is locate a residential facility where their cultural background fits in with the community.
ShantiNiketan (pronounced shan-tee-nee-KAY-tan) is a place Indian baby boomers can spend their retirement years.
The facility is a place that had the culture and camaraderie of life in India but also the comforts and conveniences they had grown accustomed to living in the U.S.
ShantiNiketan, about 35 miles northwest of Orlando, is the first retirement community in the United States catering to people born in India.
ShantiNiketan, which translates as "house of peace," is one of a number of growing niche retirement communities aimed at people of specific ethnic backgrounds, hobbies or college allegiances.
Niche retirement communities are growing particularly popular as the 76 million baby boomers _ a generation accustomed to molding traditional institutions in their image _ are reaching retirement age.
The timing is right for ShantiNiketan, said Jeffrey "Iggy" Ignatius, the son of the president of the company that built the community, since the first wave of Indian immigrants who came to the United States in large numbers in the 1960s and 1970s are now reaching retirement age.
Some residents choose to live at ShantiNiketan for the comfort of being with people who are familiar with their foods, languages and religious tradition.
Others seek a Hindu-oriented spiritual life that wouldn't likely be available to them in a traditional U.S. retirement community.
The first phase of 54 one-story condos, with Spanish tiled roofs and stucco walls, is almost sold out, and a second phase of almost 120 units is under construction.
An assisted living facility also will be built, and a similar community is being planned in New Jersey, which has the largest concentration of Indians in the United States.
For Manu Nayak, the appeal of ShantiNiketan was a welcoming environment where other residents would feel more like family than just neighbors.
Two-bedroom condos typically sell for $200,000.
A clubhouse in the center of the condos holds a dining room, kitchen, a worship room with an enormous shrine holding icons of Hindu gods Shiva and Ganesh and an exercise room.
The dining room serves vegetarian meals, and on weekends it is used for karaoke. In their homes, residents get 20 Indian channels on their cable system, and outside their condos is a community garden filled with marigolds and tomatoes.
Hindu holidays are celebrated with parades and prayer services. Most of the residents are Hindus, although there are also Muslims and Christians.
Ram and Geeta Chandran were quite assimilated to American life, living in Newport News, Va. for decades.
Ram Chandran was a manager for a Swiss-owned manufacturer, and Geeta Chandran was a teaching physician. Most of their friends were either U.S.-born or Swiss.
When they retired three years ago, they initially put a deposit down in a traditional U.S. retirement community in Newport News.
But they heard about ShantiNiketan from a friend, and they chose to live there as one of the first residents because of the opportunity to live with others from a similar background.
Coming to ShantiNiketan involves major downsizing since many residents are moving from large multi-bedroom homes to two-bedroom condos.
But Ignatius said residents are at a time in their lives when they want to concentrate on spiritual matters.

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