"He didn't mind doing errands on the request of the son and the son's wife. He loved both of them. Their chubby two year old son was the apple of his eyes. He had retired from a very high position in the government and therefore had reasonable saving and earned a handsome pension. He was not short of money.
He didn't mind spending his money to run the house though his son too was on a good job and was earning well.
In the beginning, the errands were occasional for sometime but not before long had became a daily ritual. Every morning his dear son's wife would give him a chit having a score of items-- ranging from toothpicks to detergent powder-- written on it and he was expected to go to the market, buy the items from the department store and then roam around looking for fresh brinjal, two inch long Bhindi etc as per the specifications spelt out to him by her verbally.
The elderly loving man soon feeling slighted at the daily command and an otherwise agreeable household-chore had turned into a drudgery. It hurt his self-esteem. He felt he was losing his stature and was turning into a beast of burden. His lonely existence after the passing away of his wife had become more oppressive.
One day he reached an old age home in the city and stayed on. Life was less taunting. The smile of the child at home kept haunting. An urge swelled in him and made him restive; there was force within, pushing him to go back to the child who too loved him. This made him restless.
One day he reached the teastall close to his house in the morning and waited for his son to pass that way on his way to the office. The son did come that way, he saw the father but didn't stop to take him home, to his grandchild as the grandfather had been yearning for.
He wiped his eyes and went back to the old age home, leaving emotions at the teastall."
This is what Gopal told me this morning about the elderly gentleman whom he knew well. He wanted I wrote about his case.
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(February 16, 2015)
(February 16, 2015)
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