The Abandoned

“Nandu passed away just now. It was a cardiac arrest”. A neighbor said.

Nandu meant nothing to everyone. And so was his death. For me, he was a mere passer-by, a man who utters meaningless words, who laughs without any reason and walks past my house. Everyone in the housing colony shared the same feeling about him. Also, his mom, like him had lost the normalcy of mind at some point of time.  

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lapseoftheshutter

I went to his house. It was very different from a normal house. A broom or a mop might have last touched the floor before years. It looked like an abandoned garage with lot of unusable and unknown things all over the floor. There lay Nandu amidst all those rubbish. It was only minutes since he had died. His mom sat near him. Unlike a lady who had lost her son and wept near his body, she screamed aloud and shouted all possible bad words at the people around. Her relatives who reached there off-late had remained detached; even Nandu’s sister. I thought she would go near her mom and would try to console her. Or atleast, she being a doctor, I thought she would try to put her mom on sedation for her body couldn’t stand those long hours of screaming and shouting. No, she blankly stood near me, among the crowd and watched the scene. She and the relatives might have feared that if they showed any involvement they will have to take care of the abnormal lady for the rest of her life. They might have wanted her wealth. But certainly not her.

Then the neighbor doctor came with the medicines and sedated her. Seeing the detached relatives the neighbors co-operated well and did all that they could.

I gathered Nandu’s story even though in bits and pieces. Nandu belonged to a very wealthy family. He was the son of an Ex-Chief General Manager of a bank. Nandu was a Post Graduate and a rank holder who had started his career in a bank. His mom too held a reputed position in a firm. May be, one can blame the fate- Nandu’s mental health started deteriorating for some reason. Slowly he quit the job. The next tragedy eagerly awaited them- Nandu’s dad passed way. Shocks of life, one after the other made his mom mentally ill. Her daughter who was married kept a distance from them. Thus, she fought her fate alone. Despite all her illness, she cared for her son and lived for her son. She feared that she will die before Nandu. And if that happens, she knew that her relatives won’t be bothered about Nandu. So she had arranged for his admission in an orphanage after her death. But it was decided the other way. Nandu left before her.

 People said:

 “In a way this is good. Otherwise if she had gone before Nandu, his life would have been tougher.”

Another said “He had a good death. A painless one”.

“He could drink some water that his mom gave. He had a peaceful death. You should be blessed to have such a death.”  

With whatever sense she had she tried to protect Nandu. May be his illness had made her love him more. And more..In between her screaming she asked “Why should I live again? For whom should I live?”   The crowd didn’t bother to listen. The discussion topics had started changing: They were busy talking about kids, grand children, school admissions, son’s transfer, daughter-in-law’s new job…and so on….

The loss is hers. Only hers.
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*Thanks to those who commented.Actually this incident happened on the previous day of my blog post.I was shocked/surprised to see the reactions of the crowd(which included the relatives) there. And hence this blog.The only change is the character's pet name.All the other aspects are just the ditto of what I saw there.

Do keep reading. Your criticisms are always welcome...