Four walls don’t make a home!
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India’s turnaround!
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This is a story about elderly people and senior citizens who when displaced from their familiar environment and old friends with whom they openly expressed their feelings and chatted freely. They tend to get isolated, quiet and miss the familiar surroundings. This affects their everyday life, their physical and mental health. It also shortens their life span. Sometimes children and loved ones shift them with good intention but don't realize the harm caused during their twilight years.
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India was partitioned in 1947 into India and Pakistan. Overnight people became refugees. People from both sides were crossing over to the other side. There was chaos; Hindus from the other side crossed over to India, and Muslims on this side crossed over to the other side. Many Muslims stayed back. Similarly, some Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians stayed back on the other side. Suddenly friends became foes. People on either side were being harassed and massacred; over 10 million people lost their lives. This was the darkest chapter in Indian history. And Chopra and family was one of them. An affluent Punjabi family with a big house, property, and business had to leave it all overnight and cross over to the Indian side as refugees. With great difficulty reached the Indian side.
Most of the Hindu refugees, mainly from Punjab, Sind, and other places, were given refuge by the Indian government in different towns and cities. Some were put in barracks, government housing buildings, and other places. Some of the affluent refugees were offered small plots of land to construct houses and live with their own people in some of the suburbs of then Bombay. Chopra and family also got a plot of land to construct a house and live within their community, where they felt at home.
Chopra’s family consisted of his aged mother, wife, and young children—two sons and a daughter. Being a qualified professional, he was able to get some assignments and manage his home. He managed to construct a small house in the plot of land given by the Indian authorities and have a safe roof over his head. Slowly they were able to come to grips with their fate. At least they were happy that all were safe and together. Days passed by, and they were trying to settle down in the new city, new environment, and among new people. Life was not so easy. They remembered the good old days in Punjab, now in Pakistan lost forever. But they had to get on with life.
Children were attending school, and Chopra was busy with his profession and started doing well. Next, he added a floor to the house. Since Chopra’s aged mother and his wife were not comfortable living in the same house, the family shifted to the top floor, while his aged mother lived on the ground floor. Chopra shared his free time with his mother on the ground floor and his family on the first floor. Now things were going smoothly, and they were settling down in the new place. Years passed by, and Chopra and his family were living a happy and peaceful life. After a couple of years, his aged mother expired peacefully in this house, though longing to see their ancestral house they left behind. The children grew up; the elder son, Akash, got admission in IIT, and the daughter, Asha, and the other son, Arun, would be finishing school in a few years. Time went by, and life was kind to Chopra. They were settled and comfortable in the new city. Slowly they were rebuilding their life from scratch.
As years went by, everything was falling into place. The elder son, Akash, passed out from IIT. The other son, Arun, managed to get admission in an engineering college, and the daughter, Asha, passed the entrance exam and got admission in a medical college in Mumbai. However, as things were going fine, his wife fell ill, and after some months, she too expired. Chopra was devastated. Now he was left alone with his children. The only solace was that he was living in a colony with houses and people who too were refugees like him; some were his old friends. He would share his thoughts and memories with his contemporaries of his native place in Punjab, now in Pakistan. They are all beautiful memories of friends; some of them were Muslims too who grew up with them. Partition had devasted and separated them forever.
Meanwhile, his daughter Asha and elder son Akash were married. The younger son, Arun, went abroad to the USA and later settled there. Years later he too got married there to a foreigner. He lived with his elder son, Akash, and his wife. Slowly he retired from active life and was happy and healthy. Every morning on getting up, he would go down and join his old friends for a chat. Later again in the evening, he would sit with his old friends in the colony and talk about various things, including life in their native Punjab, before crossing over to India as refugees. And how they restarted their life all over again from nothing. This meeting was like oxygen to him to energize life being among his own people. He was enjoying his retired life and was happy that his son had taken over charge of the house.
Age was catching up with Chopra, but he was fit and healthy. His elder son, Akash, who was into business, established himself and was doing well. He had two children, a girl and a boy, who were schooling. With success comes ambition and ideas. With modern residential towers coming up nearby, his son and wife were keen to move into one of the modern towers after living in a modest house for years. They booked a flat in one of the top floors in a nearby tower. Chopra was not keen to shift since coming to Mumbai; with his mother, wife, and children, he had lived in this modest house he had constructed for many years. Besides, people who, like him, had crossed over to India had been staying here as neighbors for decades. And they were the support system for each other in times of need.
But his son Akash and his wife had made up their minds to shift to the new flat. Finally convincing his father, they shifted to the new flat in a tower on the ninth floor with all modern amenities. Chopra felt lost, isolated and lonely. He couldn’t come down freely to go and meet his old friends, some distance away. In the earlier house, on getting up, he would walk down and chat with his old friends. Here it was all quiet, and the loneliness affected his physical and mental health. Within a few months, he fell sick. He started to sink. Lying on the bed, just staring at the fan and the ceiling, he was thinking about his big house in Punjab, his modest old house here, his friends from Punjab who, like him, came as refugees, and the chats he had with them. Though his son took good care of him and referred him to a reputed doctor and could afford the best of treatment for him, there was no improvement; without realizing that his heart was in the old house, among his old friends, which was like oxygen to him to energize and to keep him fit and healthy.
His son Akash, though educated, sincere, and smart, didn’t realize that a cozy house with four walls is not sufficient especially for the elderly. A man needs a social life too, especially his contemporaries. And almost after a year of shifting to the apartment in the tower, his falling sick, failing health, and struggling to get back to normal, he expired a lonely man. The tall, well-built, smiling man was a shadow of himself in the end.
Shifting or displacing the elderly during their twilight years, even with good intention, from old and familiar surroundings is the worst thing to do; people do more harm to their psyche and their well-being, affecting their physical and mental health, and soon loneliness creeps in, though family and children are with them. But they get busy with their own life and problems without realizing old people get ignored, need company and having no social life or anyone to talk to or interact with them does more harm than any sickness.
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India’s turnaround!
India's turnaround happened during Narsimha Rao's time as PM, though not much credit is given to him for initiating the move. The shift from socialism to liberalism happened under Narsimha Rao as PM and Manmohan Singh as finance minister. They changed the face of India. Infused a new approach and new thinking and changed the mindset of Indians and Indian business and manufacturing. India opened up to foreign investment, technology, expertise, and collaborations. It was an impetus for India’s growth and development. And in the following years it yielded positive results.
Narsimha Rao decided that India, which in 1991 was on the brink of bankruptcy, would benefit from opening its economy. He appointed economist Manmohan Singh, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, as finance minister to accomplish his goals. Both of them changed the face of India. The world suddenly got interested in India. Many projects followed.
This turnaround and opening of the Indian economy provided the much-required boost. Liberalism changed all, from booking cars and scooters with long waiting lists to markets opening up and competition. A new dose was injected, and the nation woke up. With a large middle class with a healthy purchasing power, India attracted the world.
Today we are enjoying the fruits and a robust economy due to Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, true architects of Indian liberalism, open markets, and thriving economy. With an impressive growth rate, the world is looking at India. Some are surprised, and some are jealous at India’s rise to the fourth largest economy in the world. India can’t be ignored anymore.
Like to make money sitting at home!
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