Respectable Protection for the Elderly

During early seventies we had an American, Dr. Raymond Griffith, as a guest teacher in English at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. He asked me hesitatingly one day if incestuous marriage was accepted in India. On my looking askance at him, he stated that almost every week one or another acquaintance had been approaching him with the request

‘Dr Griffith, I am marrying my daughter next Sunday. Please attend the function’.

I felt amused and said ‘He meant that he was going to solemnise the wedding of his daughter’.

Griffith exclaimed ‘Oh! He should have said that he was marrying off his daughter’.

I considered it as an opportune moment to have a puzzle solved. ‘Raymond’ I said, ‘Your surname is Griffith. How is it that your mother is called Mrs. Mary Hicks?’

Griffith laughed and replied in an easy tone ‘After my father’s death, mother chose to marry one Mr. Hicks. She did not drop that surname even after legal separation with her second husband. I send her a card regularly on Mother’s Day. Whenever I am in the States I call at her with appointment in the home for old people’.

Griffith also informed that after every such visit she invariably ascertained whether he carried sufficient money with him. On my asking the purpose thereof he said ‘The gangsters frequently waylay the people driving home late at night. If their victim does not have sufficient amount to meet their expectations, they hit him hard contemptuously for he lacks respectability according to their norms’.

I felt uneasy to learn such unusual things about a country, the dreamland of many. For making me feel relaxed, he told me ‘My mother shows with pride to her colodgers the letters she receives from you. Few people in USA find time to communicate through writing and they find it convenient to talk on phone. Printed cards, suitable for each occasion, offering a large variety are available which are posted to cover corresponding social obligations’.

After a pause, he continued ‘The colodgers envy my mother when she reads to them your long affectionate letters because they never receive any such communication from their offspring even’.

After he left, I kept buzzing ‘East is East, West is West, never the twain shall meet’. To my great astonishment they met at my home itself.

We are an ageing couple living in a spacious house, constructed keeping in view the needs of a joint family. Our children are well settled but scattered in three countries. Hence the upkeep of an empty nest entails a lot of physical exertion. They talk to us often on phone to ascertain our welfare but expect us to keep writing to them detailed letters for filling their emotional gap.

During May last we became the victims of a burglary. Earlier in the afternoon my wife received touching and fascinating Mother’s Day cards from USA and Canada. There had been a dust-storm followed by showers in the evening. We had a nice sleep. Surprisingly, neither of us felt the urge to go to bathroom that night. When we woke the next morning, we found the other bedroom bolted from within. Lo! The studyroom as well. On going out we discovered that the glass pane of a window had been removed and the grill unscrewed. The almirahs had been ransacked and a locked trunk removed to a corner of the courtyard. It had been broken open and the contents lay scattered around it. The condition in the study room, to which the entry got provided through the combined bathroom, was no better. Being present at home, we did not expect any such daring breaking-in. The steel almirah in that room remained unlocked. A day earlier I had drawn a handsome amount from the bank for the routine biennial repairs. The purse lay on the table. I knew precisely what I had been deprived of. My wife, who is more methodical in safeguarding her valuables and effecting savings than me, took time to ascertain her loss. The burglars had been choosy. They lifted yellow metal and cash only. The loss exceeded a six-figure sum.

Old age coupled with pain in knees restricts my movements. I rang to my eldest son who reached within an hour. Finding that we had escaped any physical harm; he heaved a sigh of relief. When I remonstrated that why he had been ignoring my advice to remove his jewellery to the bank locker, he submitted calmly ‘I had kept a part of it at home to ensure your protection. Imagine, if after ransacking the almirahs, the intruders had not found any cash or ornaments, they were sure to awaken you and mishandle even to find out where the valuables had been hidden. On your resistance, the desperadoes could have gone to any extent. Material loss does not mean much. Thank God, that neither of you needs hospitalisation. In that event there would have been none to attend to you there for long’.

In a flash, I got reminded of what Griffith had talked two decades ago about respectable protection from antisocial elements The police was informed; They came, inspected the site, found fault with us for our being careless, advised us to pack the scattered articles and have the grill refixed, but showed no inclination to register the first information report on the plea that nothing was going to come out of that. Being a local officer, my son could persuade his counterpart in the police set-up to have at least the report registered. We were obliged after thirty six hours of the mishap.

Along with that started a stream of callers - friends, neighbours and fun-seekers. After the preliminary what and how, all congratulated us for our having escaped any physical harm. Some of them even indulged in philosophising. I normally choose to sleep in the study room, because the cooler in the bedroom aggravates my knee trouble. It was sermonised that the Almighty managed our safety. Had there been no squall followed by showers, the hot weather would have necessitated switching on of the cooler, leading to my opting to sleep in the study room and thus exposing myself to a possible encounter with the intruders.

We are sadder and wiser after the event, but we ponder often that the police being busy with its other more important tasks, if packs of burglars continue to break in, what shall ensure our protection next? Electrical gadgets ….. parchments ..... crockery till we get pushed to a home for old people.