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PITILESS PROGENCY
Chekka Appalanarasamma being fed at the Prema Samajam. -- Photo: K.R. Deepak.
Her husband had left the world, and in the evening of her life she pinned hopes on her only son. But he and his wife thought otherwise, and the heartless son abandoned the mother at a bus shelter near Poorna Market.
Despite all this, 65-year old Chekka Appalanarasamma does not fault her son or her daughter, who had also not come to her rescue, and blames it on her fate. The mother in her wants to give away the monthly pension of about Rs.1,700 to her son, while suffering a desolate life.
Appalanarasamma's husband was an Armed Reserve constable. A couple of months earlier, she had suffered mild paralysis of the left hand and left leg and was unable to do anything on her own. Her son Srinu, perhaps succumbing to pressure from his wife, decided to desert the mother. Petty hawkers and kindly souls at the bus shelter fed her for some days.
The old woman's plight was noticed by the Mahila Chaitanya Sravanthi president, D. Venkatalakshmi, and her husband, A. Jagadeeswara Rao, who got her shifted to Prema Samajam's Home for the Aged.
The woman activist, who is also an advocate, filed a petition in the District Court seeking that Appalanarasamma should have the sole right to enjoy her husband's pension, whereupon, a direction was issued that the pension be restored to her, failing which action could be initiated against the family members. A few days later, some unidentified persons visited her at Prema Samajam and surrendered the pension book to her and left the place.
Ms. Venkatalakshmi feels that the money could be utilised to treat Appalanarasamma. Referring to a similar case, she recalls a pathetic incident in which the son of an old woman had left his mother at a burial ground in Mindi recently.
Visibly concerned at the declining human and moral values, she says that the problem could be countered effectively only when each individual takes the responsibility in preventing the accused from going scot-free. She attributes the disintegration of the joint family system and the lack of a support system in the nuclear families as the prime cause for declining human values.
"The modern youth no longer feel that the elderly should be cared and treated with respect. In many cases they argue that their grandparents were not taken care of by parents, and hence the youngsters feel that there is no need for them to be different. Their only concern is the assets and money their parents have earned."
People like Srinu will, perhaps, realise their folly only in the evening of their life. But then it would be too late.
B. MADHU GOPAL
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