Our visit to an old age home

It was a unique activity done alongside a group of classmates as a project of ULC, it all started when my friend Dheeraj enquired at the ‘JJ charitable trust’ and finally our group of friends had a group discussion on what should be done, we all put some money together and bought them some groceries after collecting the money and were ready with the preparations a day prior to our visit.

All of us reached the location on time the next day, and went in with loads of groceries to give, the warden of the old age home greeted us with heartfelt gratitude and offered all of us a seat and started asking us, what we were doing and appreciated us for gathering and coming to visit them on good Friday which was considered as an auspicious day for them. Looking around the old age home it was maintained well, and was filled with beds. There were old people surrounding us each with a different disability and illness. The warden started by an introduction about herself in which she claimed to be a nurse and how after a while she had dedicated her life for the people who were left alone and had no one. She started narrating various incidents of people in the home by telling “who do you thing is the reason for you students coming here today” we were all confused and had various answers to tell some said ‘god’ ,and some said because of our ‘teacher’ and other answers, she told no its not god nor your teachers it’s your ‘parents’ who are the reason for you all coming here ,cause we are nothing without our parents ,so she told never forget at any point in life ,however rich you are or whatever your position is in life, the persons who helped you get a start was them.

At the end of what she told there was pin drop silence and deep sense of thought amongst all our classmates. Then later she started pointing at a lady at the first bed and told “look there the person over there is here with us here for 9 years ,she is a very active person and has the capability to do all her daily chores all by herself ,her hands and legs are working fine ,she infact washed her clothes on her own even though there is a washing machine and told she is aged about 65 years” she continued a tragedy struck her 9 years ago when her son told her to get in the car, on asking where he was taking her ,he told to a friend’s place after a while the son drives a distance and tells his mother to get down in the road and drives away swiftly , later she claims to have been taken by police officials and admitted in the old age home. After hearing this story, me and my classmates were devastated and most of us were filled with tears in our eyes. Me along with some friends went to that old lady and spoke to her for a while and told that we were there for here, that’s when she added I’m doing good here, I had taken such good care of my son when he was small, I had sacrificed so much to bring him up, but now he left me in the streets like a stray dog, it’s been 9 years now I’ve been waiting for a time when he’ll come and take me back, but he never turned up. But its ok, I’m glad he is happy with his wife and children and has a luxurious home and car, let him be happy and may god bless him”, my heart had broken into pieces on hearing this, on further enquiring about her other children she told she had a daughter too, I asked her why can’t your daughter take care of you, for which she said it’s inappropriate to stay with the daughter once she is married and also it’s a shame if she stays with the daughter when the son is alive. At this point something hit me hard and made me think about a lot of things on how society treats gender differently and the responsibly with inequality.

There were other stories too which the warden had told and showed us papers of plethora of police complains against their children for leaving them, which was really hurting and shook our hearts apart, later she added by telling how she is taking care of patients within her home by treating them with available medicines which comes as a donation. She also spoke about another old aged man who was generous enough to donate his piece of land for the use of these people, the man too had no one for himself and was an orphan so they welcomed him to stay amongst them with open arms. She showed us a construction plan and the estimate to build an orphanage with good facilities like ambulance ,daycare,cafeteria,nursing units and patient accommodation. She requested us to help not in the form of money but in the form of construction materials required for construction and told that that was her dream project and wanted to accomplish this mission before her death. She asked us to further spread this to our friends and family and help her achieve this deed of hers.

While going she had pointed at another old man who was suffering from a weird disorder and told us he hadn’t had anything since morning than we immediately rushed to a nearest medical shop and got him the required medicine, the warden was thankful and it was time for us to leave. It Truely was a emotional ride visiting the “JJM Charitable trust” and lesson for life indeed.