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Psychotherapist retires at 85 to be a playwright By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF When Kanu Bhatt reached what would be considered a retiring age for most people, he moved to Oakville with the intention of winding up his psychotherapy practice. However, he found himself as busy as ever helping couples through marriage counselling and did not let up for another 20 years. Now that he has attained age 85, Bhatt has finally decided to end the practice of meeting with people or couples in his home office. He has moved out of his lakefront Oakville home and no longer has the space to accept clients. This is at least until his son, a builder, completes a new home for his father. But, if you would expect Bhatt is going to take it easy from here on in, you would be wrong. The psychotherapist of more than 40 years is not yet ready to retire. Instead, he has opted to make a career change. This time he's turning to his lifelong passion: writing screenplays. Bhatt also intends to do a few hours here and there of counselling via Skype. "I'm not my age. I'm very childish at heart," said Bhatt of his desire to keep working. Even his daughter thinks he's young for his age. Not long after he turned 80, they were at a social gathering together when his daughter approached him. "She whispers in my ear and says, `So you're 80.' I said, `Yeah.' She said, `So when do you start growing up?'" he recalled. Keeping active will also help Bhatt stay out of his wife's way. "He's like a little kid. If you don't pay attention, he's going to do something," said Sushila, his wife of 61 years. "I want him to work, otherwise, he'll go in the kitchen where he doesn't know a thing. He'll say `put this in, put that in. No, no, put that in. He doesn't even know how to boil the water and now he's teaching me about cooking.'" Bhatt has already written a number of plays and hopes to have as many as 10 published. He has already self-published three. Bhatt recently hosted a book launch for one of his publications, Gandhi in Jerusalem, at the Glen Abbey Branch of the Oakville Public Library in February. The play is a fantasy about world peace. The peace is initiated by Gandhi, but is led by Lilith, known in Jewish folklore as the first wife of Adam. Further, the play consists of dialogue between characters such as Albert Einstein, Pierre Trudeau, Golda Meir, the fourth prime minister of Israel, as well as some well-known people of the Islamic and Christian faiths. Even while Bhatt was working as a psychotherapist earlier in his career in Ottawa, he had his work produced. The play Trouble in Heaven was staged in the capital city and that gave him further encouragement to write. Bhatt's plays are about 30-minutes long. He said he hopes to write plays that would be perfect for lunch-hour staging in metropolitan locations such as downtown Toronto. Bhatt said his passion for writing likely comes from his father. When he was still a child, living in his native India, Bhatt's father wrote short stories. His father would read the plays out loud and his family was asked to critique them. "That was the only time we were allowed to speak up about what we didn't like about the work," Bhatt said with a laugh. "He used to say children give a very different perspective from anybody." 23 · Friday, April 6, 2012 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com "One way of not aging is to always keep the company of young people. Also, keep a good sense of humour and don't take life too seriously because then you become stuffy." Kanu Bhatt, Oakville resident Embarking on a new career at 85 is not that easy, Bhatt admitted. "It's a challenge to start writing plays at 85. It was a drama unto itself. I almost call it a religious conversion, although I'm not a religious person, to change from psychotherapy to something entirely different." Working as a psychotherapist has kept Bhatt busy and excited for many years. He said each episode in a person's life could be a half-hour play. "I never got bored in my work because every person is a novel, is a detective story. You have to be Scotland Yard almost," he said. Now, that he's moved on, Bhatt said he is excited to embark on the challenges of a new path in life. And he never intends to grow old. He even has some tips for others who want to remain as young as he. "One way of not aging is to always keep the company of young people. Also, keep a good sense of humour and don't take life too seriously because then you become ERIC RIEHL / OAKVILLE BEAVER / @halton_photog stuffy," he said. career change: Dr. Kanu Bhatt is retiring from a Get Your career as a psychotherapist at the age of 85. Now, he will begin a new career as a playwright. Bhatt has already written several books and plays. FREE FAMILY PASS! 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