After my engineering studies, I started off my career at a call center in Cochin where I worked for few months. There I was into an Aussie telecom campaign where the job required making calls to residents in Australia, canvassing them to switch from their current telephone provider to ours. A particular call which I made to one Ms. Elisabeth I can never forget.
Elisabeth is a 75 year old woman who lives in West Australia. She had access only to incoming calls and was above 65 as well, and both these conditions disqualified her for my offer. However, she was glad that I placed her a call as her elder son’s name was ‘Brian’ which incidentally had been the pseudo name I was using those days while dealing with the Aussies. I was touched by the way she opened up to me despite me being a stranger. The broken labored tone of her voice clearly indicated the agony and loneliness that was creeping in to her. Though she was a mother of two sons well settled in some other part of the country, she led a lonely life in some part of Western Australia. They would send her money regularly, but hardly paid her any visit nor did they make it a priority to call her up over phone. They provided care, but not concern.
In these days of rapid movement, one may not be able to stay with parents due to the nature of work or other unavoidable reasons, which is understandable. One may not be able to travel back home everyday after work and spend time with parents, but that can't be taken as an excuse for not spending a couple of mins daily over the phone with them. The advent of technology and internet has made things even easier. When the mother in Cochin tells her son in Delhi about the heavy rain in Cochin, there is nothing that the son who lives in Delhi could do about it, but it reassures the mother's mind which yearns for her son's presence in her old age. That though 1000 kms away he is still close by, within earshot, to shower her with love and concern.
My mom and I used to talk over phone almost on a daily basis when I had to stay away from home during my engineering studies in Coimbatore. A phone call was incorporated in our daily routine regardless whether we had any significant matter to talk about. But those few minutes of conversation made a lot of difference to our lives. Those days I have often felt that there exists a kind of telepathic connection between my mom and me. Whenever I was not in the optimum, I would instantly get a call from her. And my calls, as she has often told me, usually arrived whenever she thought of me.
In childhood, one craves for love and attention. Its the same with oldage, often called second childhood. Little kids are often told to be careful not to stumble upon objects and fall down. We say the same to our parents when they walk in to their second childhood, when they become kids again. Their minds too become like that of children when they revisit their childhood and would crave for love, care and concern. When time doesn't stand as a casualty in spending hours over the phone with your partner, definitely atleast a few minutes everyday has to be kept apart for parents. When loneliness creeps in as one gets older, a few mins of talk everyday over the phone would be a great relief.
Now that I live and work in Cochin, we no longer have to depend on telephone to talk to each other, but I hope the telepathic connection which my mom shares with me gets on to my kid(s) as well. That I have their daily presence, at least over phone, when I grow grey haired.
And as I write this, I hope Elisabeth receives proper care and concern she craves for.
In fact its not just a hope, its a prayer.
-Balu
Elisabeth is a 75 year old woman who lives in West Australia. She had access only to incoming calls and was above 65 as well, and both these conditions disqualified her for my offer. However, she was glad that I placed her a call as her elder son’s name was ‘Brian’ which incidentally had been the pseudo name I was using those days while dealing with the Aussies. I was touched by the way she opened up to me despite me being a stranger. The broken labored tone of her voice clearly indicated the agony and loneliness that was creeping in to her. Though she was a mother of two sons well settled in some other part of the country, she led a lonely life in some part of Western Australia. They would send her money regularly, but hardly paid her any visit nor did they make it a priority to call her up over phone. They provided care, but not concern.
In these days of rapid movement, one may not be able to stay with parents due to the nature of work or other unavoidable reasons, which is understandable. One may not be able to travel back home everyday after work and spend time with parents, but that can't be taken as an excuse for not spending a couple of mins daily over the phone with them. The advent of technology and internet has made things even easier. When the mother in Cochin tells her son in Delhi about the heavy rain in Cochin, there is nothing that the son who lives in Delhi could do about it, but it reassures the mother's mind which yearns for her son's presence in her old age. That though 1000 kms away he is still close by, within earshot, to shower her with love and concern.
My mom and I used to talk over phone almost on a daily basis when I had to stay away from home during my engineering studies in Coimbatore. A phone call was incorporated in our daily routine regardless whether we had any significant matter to talk about. But those few minutes of conversation made a lot of difference to our lives. Those days I have often felt that there exists a kind of telepathic connection between my mom and me. Whenever I was not in the optimum, I would instantly get a call from her. And my calls, as she has often told me, usually arrived whenever she thought of me.
In childhood, one craves for love and attention. Its the same with oldage, often called second childhood. Little kids are often told to be careful not to stumble upon objects and fall down. We say the same to our parents when they walk in to their second childhood, when they become kids again. Their minds too become like that of children when they revisit their childhood and would crave for love, care and concern. When time doesn't stand as a casualty in spending hours over the phone with your partner, definitely atleast a few minutes everyday has to be kept apart for parents. When loneliness creeps in as one gets older, a few mins of talk everyday over the phone would be a great relief.
Now that I live and work in Cochin, we no longer have to depend on telephone to talk to each other, but I hope the telepathic connection which my mom shares with me gets on to my kid(s) as well. That I have their daily presence, at least over phone, when I grow grey haired.
And as I write this, I hope Elisabeth receives proper care and concern she craves for.
In fact its not just a hope, its a prayer.
-Balu
1 comment:
very very sensibly put. thank you for this - old people indeed need to be cared for and nurtured. it is they who have made us what we are, after alll...
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