Your home with kith and kin , the best old age home for you

Your home with kith and kin , the best old age home for you

By

P.R.Ramachander

(The recent issue of Mangayar Malar has a story by Mrs Nandini Selvam   entitled “Yen iniya(karunai) illa thailvikku oru parisu. The story is about a retired  widowed school teacher who finds, life in her son’s home abominable because, she does not get degree coffee at 5 Am, no body bothers about her, she is not getting  food whenever she feels and no one  loves her,Then she tells her close friend that she is thinking  of going to an old age home.  This is the gist of what   the friend tells her(I simply cannot get in to these lines the majesty of the  language used there) .She then decides her home is the best old home ever possible, and starts  adjusting and appreciating   the home which is the best possible  old age home to her.

You say you are  not getting thick coffee   early morning ,

In the home    of your  own children  and grand children,

You say that  all people at home  do not have time only for you

Would you get the same   in old age homes?

You say that    since daughter in law   is busy with her chores,

You are not getting  food  and snacks , any time you feel like it,

Would   any old age home    give you all this to you,

Unless   they ring the bell     and  you go in time to the dining hall ?

You say that no body shows  love , affection and kindness,

In this home of yours whose members are  your kith and kin,

Di you really thing    that any  of those strangers ,

In an old age home   would show you affection and love?

If  one day you die in this home of yours  ,

Your people   would surround your  cot  ,

Would  lament and shed tears   for you    but in an old age home,

Some one would be waiting with anxiety  to fill up your cot.

Think this home  of your    son, daughter in law and grand kids,

As an old age home   chosen by you to live and then,

All actions of theirs would appear  to be  kind and nice to you,

But if you see it  with pride   as your home

Where you have  all the right to command ,

All people would appear cruel and home   would be a hell.

Are they giving  food that they do not eat to you in this your  home ?

Are they  willfully   deny food to you in proper time in this your home?

Are they not treating you as    an elder in their care,

Would they  not take care of you if are ill,

This is your home  , the special place that is only yours

You  are  more like a blind sage who searches god,

In places where  he is not there and you read prayers,

With a mind covered   completely with dust  of prejudice,

Clean your mind , open your eyes and again see   your children,

Who are  learning to live   and struggling  to establish,

AS  the ones who love you a lot but  do not have time to show off,

And this  heavenly   old age home would  be a paradise to you.