Our pilgrimage to our own lonely home of the aged couple

Our pilgrimage   to  our own lonely  home  of the aged couple

By

P.R.Ramachander

Till  we both got married  we were  with our parents,

Though  we  were  all alone ourselves  immediately  after marriage,

The new companionship  and the dreams   about the future ,

Made us never to feel  our loneliness   at all .

With coming of children in our  life   , we were  never lonely,

For they  were  always with us  and also our mind was full of them,

Times passed , they   reached  a stage  when they wanted a companion,

And   with those companions   they left  us for lands unknown,

WE still were   not lonely , because   grand children  came,

And our children knew, that we were  the best  to look after them,

And so we travelled  all around   the globe to be with them,

And we again never felt  lonely with those littlw babes on our laps.

Our little grand children  grew up   and  a time came  ,

When  there  was no need   for both of us  in their homes ,

And slowly we realized  that   we are   fated  for loneliness,

But it took time   for us to realize  that age will steal our health also.

Our teeth  started  falling,  hearing   started   failing  ,

And the doctor  told both of us that   we have  high  Bp,

High sugar, cholesterol   , thyroid and so many other things,

And we both started   swallowing   dozens  of pills   daily.

Slowly   the   amount of food that we   ate  became so low,

That , my wife’s cooking   and my eating   started  becoming,

Similar  to the cooking and eating   game   that  was played,

Whenever   the children of our children met in some resort.

Though we both had   the latest  gadjets  of communications,

Our children found that   they do not  have time to talk   with us,

All  our relations   who were  living  in lonely  islands  like us ,

Did not have health  nor money   to visit us   some time.

Then one day  my better  half   had a brilliant  idea ,

Of going to  a pilgrimage to a temple  in a far off  place,

Some how I did reach   the far away railway station ,

But in the ticket windowI was informed  no lower berths

My wife  when contacted  by phone   told me no problem,

AS the people  in the lower berths    would be altruistic,

And with great  joy exchange   their lower  berths for us.

But  on the travel day, we found no one was willing.

After some how completing   the pilgrimage  we decided,

No more pilgrimages  and we   decided   that  we would ,

Frquently   call our  children in  the free whatsapp calls,

But whenever we called, they were in malls  and restaurants.

Next  week our   busy children indeed called and said,

They were still busy and wanted  us to talk  to our grand kids,

We could not understand  a single word  one of them talked,

And by the time we asked for the  other , he was long back gone.

WE both   got terribly vexed  and  since we found it difficult to read ,

Decided to watch  the TV serials   as well as the trash they call news,

WE soon realized  that watching TV   was a greater punishment  than loneliness,

And we are yet to decide , whether lonely old age homes  are better than the real ones.