Tuesday, April 9, 2013

PERILS OF LONGEVITY

Sania from Haryana almost made history when the President Of India turned down her mercy plea to save her from the gallows during the first week of April .However the Supreme Court order of interim stay of the hanging has given her some reprieve. She and her husband Sanjeev were sentenced to death in 2007 for killing her father and Seven others over family property in 2001.If the stay is vacated she will be the first woman to be hanged to death in India.

Social Welfare magazine reported a case by a Psychiatric Social Worker attached to a Mental Hospital in UP some years ago about the plight of a retired Govt officer in his sixties. He was admitted as a seriously mentally ill in the hospital. The new social worker interviewed the " patient" and visited the various places and met persons known to him according to the desire of the person. The person was the owner of a huge property and his wife and son found him inconvenient for their plans.So he was taken to the Mental Hospital. The Psychiatrist obviously obliged in return for a hefty professional fee.

Kalyani of Chennai city belonged to an aristocratic family. She considered her a blessed woman with a son, a pilot working in an airlines, a sweet daughter-in-law, and a 10-year old grandson. She did not feel the loss of her husband in a caring family. Her seventieth birthday was celebrated in a grand manner. The guests and relatives said that they were jealous of her. Kalyani was elated. After some weeks she bequeathed her entire property, bank balance, and her beautiful house. She visited some places of worship and returned with peace of mind. Kalyani's peace was shattered in a few weeks. Minor quarrels led to major ones initiated by her daughter-in-law who has become bitter. One night when her son was away the quarrel resulted in the daughter-in-law punching  Kalyani on her face. She had to run out with bleeding nose to her neighbour's house. Kalyani now is an inmate of a charitable home for the aged.

Income security is important in old age. But excess of income can be a cause of misery and even untimely death.

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