RESPECTABLE PROTECTION FOR THE ELDERLY
Prof. Hazara Singh
During early seventies we had an American,
Dr. Raymond Griffith, as a guest teacher in English at Punjab Agricultural
University, Ludhiana. He asked me hesitatingly one day if incestuous marriage was
accepted in India. On my looking askance at him, he stated that almost every
week one or another acquaintance had been approaching him with the request
‘Dr Griffith, I am marrying my daughter next
Sunday. Please attend the function’.
I felt amused and said ‘He meant that he was
going to solemnise the wedding of his daughter’.
Griffith exclaimed ‘Oh! He should have said that he was marrying off his daughter’.
I considered it as an opportune moment to
have a puzzle solved. ‘Raymond’ I said, ‘Your surname is Griffith. How is it
that your mother is called Mrs. Mary Hicks?’
Griffith laughed and replied in an easy tone
‘After my father’s death, mother chose to marry one Mr. Hicks. She did not drop
that surname even after legal separation with her second husband. I send her a
card regularly on Mother’s Day. Whenever I am in the States I call at her with
appointment in the home for old people’.
Griffith also informed that after every such
visit she invariably ascertained whether he carried sufficient money with him.
On my asking the purpose thereof he said ‘The gangsters frequently waylay the
people driving home late at night. If their victim does not have sufficient
amount to meet their expectations, they hit him hard contemptuously for he
lacks respectability according to their norms’.
I felt uneasy to learn such unusual things
about a country, the dreamland of many. For making me feel relaxed, he told me
‘My mother shows with pride to her colodgers the letters she receives from you.
Few people in USA find time to communicate through writing and they find it
convenient to talk on phone. Printed cards, suitable for each occasion,
offering a large variety are available which are posted to cover corresponding
social obligations’.
After a pause, he continued ‘The colodgers envy my mother when she reads to them your long affectionate letters because they never receive any such communication from their offspring even’.
After he left, I kept buzzing ‘East is East,
West is West, never the twain shall meet’. To my great astonishment they met at my home itself.
We are an ageing couple living in a spacious
house, constructed keeping in view the needs of a joint family. Our children
are well settled but scattered in three countries. Hence the upkeep of an empty
nest entails a lot of physical exertion. They talk to us often on phone to
ascertain our welfare but expect us to keep writing to them detailed letters
for filling their emotional gap.
During May last we became the victims of a
burglary. Earlier in the afternoon my wife received touching and fascinating
Mother’s Day cards from USA and Canada. There had been a dust-storm followed by
showers in the evening. We had a nice sleep. Surprisingly, neither of us felt
the urge to go to bathroom that night. When we woke the next morning, we found
the other bedroom bolted from within. Lo! The studyroom as well. On going out
we discovered that the glass pane of a window had been removed and the grill
unscrewed. The almirahs had been ransacked and a locked trunk removed to a corner
of the courtyard. It had been broken open and the contents lay scattered around
it. The condition in the study room, to which the entry got provided through
the combined bathroom, was no better. Being present at home, we did not expect
any such daring breaking-in. The steel almirah in that room remained unlocked.
A day earlier I had drawn a handsome amount from the bank for the routine
biennial repairs. The purse lay on the table. I knew precisely what I had been
deprived of. My wife, who is more methodical in safeguarding her valuables and
effecting savings than me, took time to ascertain her loss. The burglars had
been choosy. They lifted yellow
metal and cash only. The loss exceeded a six-figure sum.
Old age coupled with pain in knees restricts
my movements. I rang to my eldest son who reached within an hour. Finding that
we had escaped any physical harm; he heaved a sigh of relief. When I
remonstrated that why he had been ignoring my advice to remove his jewellery to
the bank locker, he submitted calmly ‘I had kept a part of it at home to ensure
your protection. Imagine, if after ransacking the almirahs, the intruders had
not found any cash or ornaments, they were sure to awaken you and mishandle
even to find out where the valuables had been hidden. On your resistance, the
desperadoes could have gone to any extent. Material loss does not mean much.
Thank God, that neither of you needs hospitalisation. In that event there would
have been none to attend to you there for long’.
In a flash, I got reminded of what Griffith
had talked two decades ago about respectable protection from antisocial
elements The police was informed; They came, inspected the site, found fault
with us for our being careless, advised us to pack the scattered articles and
have the grill refixed, but showed no inclination to register the first
information report on the plea that nothing was going to come out of that.
Being a local officer, my son could persuade his counterpart in the police
set-up to have at least the report registered. We were obliged after thirty six
hours of the mishap.
Along with that started a stream of callers - friends, neighbours and fun-seekers. After the preliminary what and how, all
congratulated us for our having escaped any physical harm. Some of them even
indulged in philosophising. I normally choose to sleep in the study room,
because the cooler in the bedroom aggravates my knee trouble. It was sermonised
that the Almighty managed our safety. Had there been no squall followed by
showers, the hot weather would have necessitated switching on of the cooler,
leading to my opting to sleep in the study room and thus exposing myself to a
possible encounter with the intruders.
We are sadder and wiser after the event, but
we ponder often that the police being busy with its other more important tasks,
if packs of burglars continue to break in, what shall ensure our protection
next? Electrical gadgets ….. parchments ..... crockery till we get pushed to a
home for old people.