news details |
|
|
| On Mothers' Day abandoned moms look up with pseudo smiles | | Irony: Gifts v/s Tears | |
Mishu Gupta
EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, May 8: A mother is the truest friend, a shoulder we have in trials fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; as her kind precepts and counsels not only disperse the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts .We have all the reasons to celebrate Mothers Day tomorrow but is this enough a reward for her noble gestures throughout our life ?
From fashionable gift galleries to ordinary shops in the city excitement and happiness envelops everywhere with lots of youngsters thronging to buy 'something special' for their mothers .Even the air waves are filled with excitement about the importance and happiness associated with the spirit of the Day which are spread through special songs and dedicated numbers for the Mothers. Not known, let alone celebrated in Jammu in recent past the Mothers Day has for the last few years now come as a 'full fledged package' festival loaded with sentiments, spirits and gifts of course.
"The word mother has so affection and warmth in it that now a days it is not restricted to human relations only but is also used frequently in political circles….. "this----- area or particular state is being doled out step motherly treatment……, is the best slogan to ride on emotions and securing a concrete vote bank these days, observed Amit Khanna.
Khanna an executive in multinational pharmaceutical company recalling his childhood days said individuals in this world may be different in approach but all mothers be it rich or the poor have the same affection and warmth for their children. While some people feel much privileged for having the company of the mothers, on the other hand many mothers miss smile for being abandoned by their near ones!
"It looks ironical when on Mother's Day tomorrow there would be celebrations with flowers and chocolates in the Western style, the abandoned mothers at Old age and Infirm Home cannot but hide their true emotions …there is none to wipe their tears rolling down on the withered cheeks.Many mothers may feel proud of getting gifts, flowers and greetings on Mother's Day but some odd souls spending their life in old-age homes, are forced to rethink what wrong did they commit to their children that they preferred to desert them instead of taking good care of them in the sunset of life when they needed them the most.
Some of the old women now spending the autumn of their lives in an 'old age home' here were unaware of 'Mother's Day' and still are in hope that one good day they (their children) will come and take them back their home.
"The day my son takes me out from here would be the real Mother's Day for me," said Rama Devi (name changed), with a flicker of hope in her eyes. She had two daughters and was living with one of them. After her death last year, her son-in-law married another woman and left her at the old age home to fend for herself. She was left with no other option, as the second daughter never cared to meet her. Another woman, Kalawanti, who was widowed about 30 years ago and had no children, said she grappled with all sorts of problems and earned her livelihood.
"Now, I am too old to look after myself and my failing health has forced me to come here voluntarily for a stable life," she said. Another Shanti Devi (name changed), an inmate of the same home too had the conventional story to share with and was brought here by her own son who never turned back to enquire about her.
"With a pause for breath, the wrinkled face looks upward towards heaven and without blaming her son and in a compromising manner says, "perhaps I have done some wrong in my previous birth that is why the Almighty has put me in this trial and I am far away from my own people", she said in a choked voice.
She was upset and sad that she was forced to stay there by her own son but still lives in hope that one day, her son will undergo a change of heart and will come here to take her along. All the female inmates were candid but did not utter even a word against their "ungrateful" children. "Mothers are always mothers and their affection and love for children never fades. This relationship is not reciprocal and bonds of love are always stronger than knots of hatred," they said without any trace of malice.
An employee of the home dejectedly said that many aged people who had given everything to make their ward earn a good life now are living a life like nameless persons but with a false hope of rehabilitation by their wards. "Most of the times, their wards do not turn up to take their parents. He added "Mother's Day has become a farce. Our society has changed. Children treat their dogs better providing them designer food and air conditioned comfort, but for parents, bathroom is good enough."
But it is not that all sons and daughters are bad and at times the parents also fail to adjust with the changes, he quickly added. How wonderful it would be if the children continued to express their love for their mothers as they say " God made mothers for he could not be everywhere……".
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
