from my friend Narayanaswamy Subramanian A rich couple lived in a small village in India.
They had one son. They also had four daughters elder to him. They taught him Vedams and Ithihaasams and Puraanams, sookthams and ashtothrams, and sahasra-naamams, prayogams and manthrams. They wanted the very best for him. They married him to a pious village girl, who could sing classic songs, tell puranic stories, recite devi-related slokams, appreciate kathaa-kaaakshepams, bharatha naatyam and kathakali. She was trained in domestic chores such as cooking, drawing kolams, polishing brass-lamps, milking cows, nurturing calves, breast-feeding babies (when the time came). The young couple got fed up, and flew to US on savings scraped up after frugal living. They joined a vegetarian restaurant as cooks, later set up their own food establishment, and made a fortune which they invested wisely and grew rich. They sent huge remittances to the old parents in the village to put into property and furnishings for their own planned retirement. After 20 years, with six children in tow, they returned to the old village. Everything had changed there. The couple could not find their house. The son enquired of the Village Head about the whereabouts of his parents. And was directed to a decaying, unrepaired little hut on the village outskirts. "An old blind and disabled couple live there. A great pity. Their wealthy son from US sent them huge remittances for their upkeep and for them to invest in land and property for them when they return. They splurged on high living, luxury purchses, gambling, pilgrimmages all over India, mortgaged their own palatial house to moneylenders and couldn't pay. "Now they are hounded by the moneylenders, who have seized everything. They have no one to look after them." This is a true story, to tell the reality of today. It happened to my own parents and paternal grandparents. The splurgers included my paternal aunts. S N Sharma * * <http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/>* நல்லதுசெய் நல்லதே நடக்கும் *जन सेवा ईश्वर सेवा * *cnu.pne* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
