The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Abandoned old woman dies

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Friday, Apr 06, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Abandoned old woman dies

Govind D. Belgaumkar

`She was born on the street'

BANGALORE: And the life ebbed out of her. Muniyamma could not make it to a decent shelter. When the students of Garden City College brought her regular breakfast at 7 a.m. on Thursday, "everything was over," as Ashwathi, one of them put it.

The students who had been taking care of the 90-year-old woman, abandoned by her family and neighbours in T.C. Palya for the last one month, died sometime early on Thursday.

"We tried our best. But we could not do much for her," said Shailesh Kumar, who had decided to move her into an old age home. "We had decided to take her to the Government hospital today. An old age home in Satyanagar near Tin Factory had come forward to take her," he said.

The family members were taking the body to the nearby burial ground on Friday afternoon amidst beats of drums. "They were all drunk and dancing," said Shailesh Kumar. Could it be a ritual in the woman's community? "It does not seem to be so. All of them seemed to be under the influence of alcohol. But only a couple of them were dancing."

The students, particularly the girls, were in tears. They tried to shift the old woman to the Government hospital on Wednesday night. But members of her family and neighbours did not let the students do that. "She was not taken into the house at all," they said.

It may be recalled that they had been pleading with Annamma to shelter her mother in her house. The old woman, who was born on the streets, bore children and died on the streets.

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