"My daughter-in-law calls me a whore, one day I will die and no one will ever know."
Garhwal, the region of pahadi people known for their innocence, open hearted nature and simplicity. But within this simplicity somewhere exists hierarchy of thinking, behavior and relations.
One example is a real life incident of mine.
After attending workshop session in my college auditorium I was returning to hostel with my friend. As our college is in rural region we are use to meet typical garhwali villagers, and our interaction with them is quite interesting.
That day it was emotional and self realizing..
We met an old lady who seemed to be in her early 70s. She was with her luggage which was a 'potli' of her clothes. We greeted her and casually asked her where was she going. She told that she was going to her son who lives in Dehradun as she was insulted, misbehaved and even tortured by her daughter-in-law. Hearing this we both got shocked. She asked us for help. Then I asked her where she had to go and how to inform her son. She neither had any phone number nor any address. So, I found it unsafe to leave her to bus stop. We were about to move and she said "One day this dadi will die & none will even know, no one cares of us at this age." This actually made my eyes teary. My friend asked me to stop and why was I getting that much emotional.. Then I somehow stopped thinking of her state and we tried to make her reach bus station but there were two problems: one that she didn't has bus fare and the other that we were not allowed to go out of college gate without permission from authorities. Then I tried to approach guards, some students but they told us that leaving her like that was also not safe, with no address and no phone no. The last option left with us was to leave from there.
After few hours I came to know that one of my class fellow also got the same lady telling the same lines. It was clear that her mental state was not good. Seriously, this was what made me think..
Reason behind this could be avoidance of her children and misbehaviour of her daughter-in-law. But what is the root of this issue: simplicity of pahadi people or migration of their children towards modern culture leaving their parents behind.
Is humanity facing extinction or our values are just for namesake.
And left me still with a single question:
What people of garhwal actually need: realization of humanity or modify their simplicity??.
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