It was a power cut and we were just waiting for the lights which were usually restored in 2 minutes. But this time it was a bit long and I casually asked about an old lady, peculiarly named as bua ji and who came to our house with a strange smile and calm on her face. And what my mother narrated shivered me to the bone. Alas, I could do something about it. I will just give you a glimpse of what my mother told me of the lady:
She got married to a well to do family, having three storied house in Patna. But it was late when family came to know that her husband had liver cancer. Money went like anything. And they were in heavy debts in no time. Time passed and nothing could save her husband. He left one day, living her alone with five progeny. The debt took their home and the family was left roofless. One day her father -in-law also departed leaving just her to carry the burden of a big family with no else earning member. Still she held her head up and served the family with full devotion with whatever she could earn. She carried her responsibilities and got her only daughter married. Till this she lived with all these with her own perception of ease, when one day her expecting daughter got seriously ill and after almost 25 days of emergency treatment, she lost all which differentiates a living from dead. She now doesn't remember even the first alphabet of Hindi. Storm never stopped and she lost her most able and understanding son in his twenties. Her eldest daughter in law used to torture her like anything. She works as charwomen in a small privately owned school who pays her 600 monthly. Youngest of his sons is too fragile and weak to work. But still he took great pains to buy a 2nd hand three wheeler rickshaws but it too, was stolen. Her 2nd son developed some severe mental problem and almost 2/3rd of her hard earned money is spent in his medicines. And imagine having 200 for a month for a 5 member family in Patna. She is landless and has to buy her food from market in that extreme mere income. And worse she is old now and her physique doesn't allow her to work as she worked all her life in search of the lowest grade of sustainability.
She lives in a low income group dilapidated housing where any convenience is hard to imagine except that it gives a roof on their head. And that too, since its illegal, government issued notice to all LIG residents to vacate in 1 month. Winters are about to come. It’s hard to imagine as to where will this family migrate to, to save itself from cold.
My purpose to write this blog is that I want some ideas from you people so that we could help that family in some or the other way. I hope you have some. Or, if you could please forward it to some organization, which may be useful in some or the other way. I often see this old lady as she comes to my home to meet my mother for some religious purposes.
