The Story of Swatantrata...

Hello friends, today I have something very special to share with you, something that will be there in my next post but as promised let me first continue with the story of Granny Swatantrata...

When I asked the supervisor at the home so as to what we could do at the home, one of the things he had suggested was to ask the elderly to spend time in the recreation centre at the home, watch television, read a magazine or two, or play carrom ( Do you people remember Munna Bhai MBBS..& Bappa...). Here I was sitting in the gallery with a few grandma's & I just raised the topic of watching television , quoting that my Grandma enjoys watching television & this brought a series of emotional reactions, strongest from granny Swatantrata...

She said that my own grandma enjoyed those because she was living with her family, was receiving all the love & care she deserved, but was not the case with them & to them all these recreational activities appeared to be superficial...

Here I was sitting in front of an 80 + retired gynaecologist, called Swatantrata. All those who are well versed with Hindi language would know that her name means "freedom". Her father was a freedom fighter & had decided that his next child whether a boy or a girl would be named Swatantrata. She talked about how as a young girl it was difficult for her family to make both ends meet as her father spent most of his years in the jail. She was married in a very young age to a person, who did little work on his own & was more of a liability on the family rather than a bread earner. It was here that somehow she studied homeopathy & as she said she was God gifted & many a parents were blessed with children through her hands. All these years she earned quite a praise & money for her good work, gave excellent eduaction to her children, who later excelled in life (her one daughter is a teacher & the other a police officer). She bought quite a property for her family, but when she grew old & was to benefit for all the hard work she had done in her youth, she was blessed with a daughter in law, who threatened her in various ways & forced her to live with her daughter. But even this was'nt to be the end of her woes as her daughter attemped suicide when her inlaws did'nt like her mother to stay with them( This after 3 yrs of staying together). Later Granny's daughter in law even left her husband & 11 yrs old daughter alone....

Here was a self made woman, & she decided to move to this old age home. I call people like her entrepreneurs in themselves, for she is one of those who create things single handedly, but not always does life return rewards in the same manner.

I talked & talked & tried my best to make her feel better, she took me too her room, gave me a banana & Tiger buscuits to eat, not to mention the blessings I received (One of them was a wonderful wife...).

I spent a wonderful time with so many granny's there in the corridor , & what was best was that I could leave so many of them with a smile on their faces & a wish for a revisit. My first visit at the home came to an end & I moved out with a bag of mixed emotions...Emotions I might not be able to express well, so I choose to create a picture from the series of events for all to see & experience themselves.