BETTER UNDERSTAND old age

Today I happened to hear the song LEY GAYI DIL GUDIYA JAPAN KE …..
From the movie 'love in Tokyo'. I was hearing the song after so many years and the song brought to my mind something which was in my unconscious mind for decades. I watched the movie when I was in my 4th standard. My cousin who was in Bombay had come to my place and wanted to go to Guruvayoor, he took me with him and we stayed over night there In a lodge. He was fond of watching movies and we saw this movie in Balakrishna theatre . This much feeling came to my mind all of a sudden, but I started thinking of him instantly. It was he who took me for Thrissur pooram for the first time, it was he who took me to Irinjalakuda utsavam also and I used to look forward for his arrival during summer vacation at my school days! He used to be with a smiling face and very gentle in whatever, he did.
I have lot of cousins. My mother had 8 brothers and all of them have children. As it was customary to name the first child with the name of grand father, nearly 8 subhramanians were in my family. In order to have some distinction between the Subus, all of them had some addition to their names. This gentle man was known as Chinna Mani. He was jovial, very much helping and hard working He lost his father while he was in college. As the responsibility of bringing up his brothers and sister fell on his shoulders he joined the insurance company where his father was working, leaving his studies mid way.
I need not say that he fulfilled all his duties systematically and when he started thinking of his marriage he was almost past that age of getting married. But while I was in my 10 th he got married. The marriage was the end point of happiness in his life. I said earlier he was a joyful man taking everything by his strides and moving on & on
But his better half turned out to be a bitter half. After his marriage seldom I saw him in the old mould.
He had two sons and a daughter. He was so attached to them .and he gave them good education and taught them some other creative activities like mrudangam etc
Soon after his daughter’s marriage his first son got employed . The other son, an engineer by profession, got campus selection while in the college itself,
We all expected that now he would lead a peaceful comfortable retired life with his sons.
But unfortunately he fell ill affected by amnesia and was also affected by Parkinson’s disease.
The wife and two children started thinking of sending him to an old age home. But this was kept as a secret from all other relatives.
One day evening I received a call from his son in low and he told me about the demise of my cousin. I was shocked to hear the news and I asked him the details. But he could not give the details, as he too was not fully aware of the facts. Later I gathered from the inmates of old age home, that my cousin was put in an old age home at Madras and was staying there. As he was sick, the loneliness and the feeling that he was not properly taken care of by his sons made him more sick and when his condition worsened the old age home people asked his son to come and take him to a hospital. But he never went there to meet his father. When the second or third reminder was received he went therewith mother On seeing his son my cousin became happy and thought that he would take him along.
But this did not happen. Instead he was taken to a local ayurvedic doctor and given some ‘kashayams’. Leaving him in the old age home itself the son & mother returned to their place at Kerala by the night train. My cousin breathed his last while these two were returning. As no mobile number was given at the old age home, they could not contact the son. Next day when they reached home, they were received by the phone call from the old age home informing the sad demise.
The mother and son decided against informing even the second son who was undergoing training at Noida and carried out the funeral at Madras on the next day by going there by the available train.
Later every one was informed in a one liner “china Mani passed away”
I felt sorry for my cousin’s brothers. Because he was a father figure to them and they would have looked after him in a better way than his family.
Dear cousin I still remember you and your smiling face is still there in my heart!