The Hindu Business Line : Options for old age security

The golden age when Smitha controlled the family purse strings and generated substantial savings from her husband's income — without his knowledge of course — is long past. After three decades of psychotropic drugs and short stays in mental asylums she is not what she used to be. What remains is a frail frame; her skin hangs on her like an oversized garment. The beauty that once turned heads is warped by age and disease. Now she just lies on her bed, eyes shut tight, shaking her folded legs, and turning her head from side to side, ceaselessly rubbing her wrists. At times she breaks into monologues of threats and abuses, directed at her unseen enemies. She hardly communicates. Her paranoid schizophrenia straitjackets her desire to relate to people. She is condemned to the black hole in her mind. Her room has an attached bathroom that her son cleans everyday. Her personal hygiene is abysmal. Her son finds this more unbearable than her hallucinations because he remembers how fussy she was about cleanliness and how she insisted that everyone bathe twice a day.

Sandhu: Why have you not eaten your breakfast, amma? (notices the puddle on the bed and screams) Oh my God! Why did you do this again? The bathroom is a few steps away. Why do you do this?

Smitha: What have I done? I have done nothing.

Sandhu: Done nothing? Can't you feel your dress is wet?

Smitha: I didn't even notice...

Sandhu: What nonsense, amma, "didn't even notice"? Are you blind or are you paralysed? (shoves her hard and she rolls backward, hitting her head on the wooden board.)

Smitha screams and Thara, Sandhu's wife, runs in to see why her mother-in-law screamed.

Smitha: How dare you push you me? You dare show off your brute strength on me?

Sandhu: Then stop this nonsense.

Thara: Stop it! Are you insane? What do you think you are doing? You have no business hitting her. How can you have the heart to hit your mother? She has been and is still a good mother to you.

When you are late, she asks me where you are. At night she asks me whether you have eaten. She never remembers to ask me if the children or I have eaten, but she never fails to ask if you have eaten. I do not recall my mother being so concerned. Ever.

Sandhu: Don't interfere in this. Just stay out.

Thara: I will definitely interfere. You have no business hitting her, no matter what she does. I don't know why you refuse to understand that at her age she is unable to control her bladder and bowel movements. She is like a helpless child. Would you beat our children? Never. Sandhu: It is not the same. She is an adult and can walk to the bathroom.

Thara: How can you be ignorant of age-induced changes in the body? Don't you know that the body's systems begin to shut down and moving around becomes difficult when one is old.

Sandhu: Stop your stupid lectures. (pause). I am fed up. (pause). You don't clean her clothes. I do. So stay out.

Thara: You are committing the worst possible sin. It will be better if you put her in an old age home.

Sandhu: An old age home? Have you forgotten that it costs Rs 3,500 a month plus cost of medicines. The monthly expense will be Rs 5,000, at least. Can we afford that now?

Thara: We are both earning, aren't we? It will be done, no matter how difficult.

Sandhu: You have your needs; the children have their demands. How can we afford this?

Thara: How can you ask such a question? She is your mother and at her age she needs security. When you were young and suffered from dengue, she did not leave you to die because the treatment was expensive. How can you talk about expenses? We will cut down on frivolous spending. If we find it difficult you can always get part-payment from the provident fund. It is safer for her to be in an old age home than here. At St Luke's Home she was so happy. She had friends and she was taken care of. You can always put her there.

Sandhu: But a professional home is never a real home. There can never have the joy of laughing with grandchildren.

Thara: At her age she needs peace and love. In the old-age home, she will be spared the agony of being tortured by her only son.

(Smitha comes out of the bathroom)

Smitha: I heard your discussion, and I think it would be better if ...

Racy@TheHindu.co.in

http://RacyCases.blogspot.com

More Stories on : Lifestyle | Health | Racy Cases

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page