Home, she lay dead

Home, she lay dead

For around five months she lay dead, in her sprawling villa in an upscale locality in Bangalore, the IT (Information Technology) capital of South India.  A city teeming with a cosmopolitan population, dominated by the younger independent generation of IT geeks and software professionals besides people from other walks of life.

 

Retired bureaucrats and people with loads of money lived alongside this lone lady in the early part of her 50’s. She had a medical problem and could be seen talking loudly to herself early mornings or just wandering aimlessly in the garden around the house. Neighbours reported loud voices coming from the house which they construed as the lady probably fighting with some vendor or the like. She had no contact with anyone and no one visited her. Though she had a family probably she was left alone due to her problem though it was her brother who found her lifeless and highly decomposed body when he visited her when he did not elicit a response from her to his e-mails or phone calls.

Neighbours of the lady said that she never interacted with anyone nor did anyone attempt to establish a communication with her possibly because they were aware of her medical problem. However one gentleman did call the cops to check out a strong stench that was reported from the direction of this house. The cops poured over the house without attempting to break in. When they forced open a window they found nothing though they did report the strong stench to their superiors. The police hierarchy were probably too busy with everyday nuances to pay attention to this report.

Once again this incident reminds us of the perils of living life independently in a throbbing city where neighbours do not care to interact within themselves. The joint family system is slowly disappearing with young ones increasingly opting to move away and be and feel independent. Some find it surprising that children stay separately from their parents within the same city. Members of the family do not see eye to eye on daily routine and therefore prefer to stay separately to avoid the daily skirmishes.

Neighbours are so darned busy or seemingly busy, that they would prefer to lock themselves in, once the menfolk leave for their work. Some people say, that with so many incidents of break-in’s happening in broad daylight security is of paramount importance and it is better to be safe than to be sorry. Lone ladies are very often shunned by menfolk since interacting with or trying to befriend a lone lady raises eyebrows and acted conversely in relation to the intent of the resident or the visitor. It was better to befriend a lady staying alone outside, rather than visit her in her own house with nobody around.

People with medical problems are being left alone uncared for, as the burden of caring for them takes a toll on family and professional life, again a gentle reminder of the perils of staying alone. In the olden days, the joint family took care of such people without substituting on premium family or professional time of other members.

Life is increasingly becoming perilous for the lonely and the elderly in our modern sprawling cities which is increasingly getting crowded but people are getting isolated.

Robin Varghese

Mail to: robin_vargh@yahoo.com

22 August 2013