In the heaven of lonely Hell

In the  heaven of lonely  Hell

By

P.R.Ramachander

(Based  on a tamil whatsapp  message  from a group called Hell   which   some old man forwarded.

Dedicated  to all lonely  old people   all over  India) 

With blessings of God , we gave birth,

To son  and a   daughter  , educated  them,

Established  them   in a   very good position,

And  got them married to a   very good  person

And they went  away  to  some other   town ,

In   some other state   or some other country .

WE become lonely  in our   own bustling home ,

In which we have  lived    for seventy long years ,

WE walked   through  own home   and remembered  ,

“Here it was   where  my daughter   studied,

Here it was  where  my son  played caroms ,

Here  is the window  which he broke while playing cricket.”

Just  like an archaeological   scientists  me and  my lady ,

With our   eyes   filled   with flowing tears saw  all over our home and then,

My lady   entered  the kitchen and did   not know how  much and what  to cook,

To these  two  oldies  because  , whatever  she  cooks will  always be  more,

And  also  almost all vegetables    and cereals   were  not suitable to them,

And I just   sat   in my old chair   and cried    , knowing well that  i should not.

Suppose we both thought   that  we will go to their  place,

The travel whether it is in a bus or train or plane  was a torture,

Buses  would not stop   in places   for us  to relieve ourselves,

In trains   we  would not get  lower berth  and in planes,

To sit like dolls   in those horrible    chairs  is indeed  a torture,

Apart   from that  is torture  of getting Ola  and Uber in time with reasonable charge

Apart   from that when we   thought of   climbing   the stair cases ,

In  stations, airports  , metros   etc etc  it made  us shiver,

So  we decided  that  we would  see, chat   and play  ,

With our children  in video call  ,  whatsapp  or Skype,

But always  they   would be busy just at that  time in some office,

Or busy purchasing   things   in Malls or in beauty parlours.

They will say  , “Pa  , is it urgent  “ and  they cut  off the phone ,

And  they would  call us   ten days  later and enquire  , why we called them,

And   inform   us that it was time   for them   to sleep   or eat  lunch or dinner.

Though we  do love  our grand children  more than them,

Their lingua   and style  of  their  talk    scared  us  as we did  not,

Understand  each other and phone was kept back in a jiffy.

In some rare  occasions    , when we   were able  see  the children in Skype,

They  would  say “Hi thatha  , thathi ,  we are busy    and would  talk to you later.”

WE both   also  did  not understand  how to make  ourselves   attractive to them.

Realizing that  our life is here  in our lonely home ,  we start living there

But  soon  start hating the TV  for its  lies  , vulgar dances  and shows far  beyond culture,

And slowly  our own home became    an old age home   for two people.

Due to Whatsapp   and Face book  , we were  able to retain our sanity ,

The silly forwards   by so called friends , the photos  posted ,

By our children daily  in the d face  book    are our only entertainment

But when our    friends and relatives   asked  us   “how    are you both?”  ,

We do say “Superb with children and grandchildren”  though  ,

IN reality  we  should tell  them with  tears “In horrible  loneliness”