Social insecurity issues

Social media moved by picture of heartbroken elderly couple: A photograph of a crying elderly Canadian couple in wheelchairs, separated into two different care homes after 62 years of marriage because no beds were available together, has received international...

Social security (or insecurity?) issues
It was a Saturday evening, sometime during the 1970’s. I was walking on the footpath towards Vellayambalam from Sastamangalam (Thiruvananthapuram). Very few vehicles were moving on the road and many were not walking on the footpath also. I noticed an elderly fisherwoman coming from my opposite side shouting something. When reached very close, finding that she was weeping, I stopped her to find out what was the cause of her worry. She said:
“Rakthathee kedakkunnu saare…payaru poloru payyan…Avante vandi idichittondu oru kaarukaaran adichu minnichu poyennu kandunikkunnavaru parayanu…Aaalu koodeettondu…Aasupathreelu kondovumaayirikkum…Petta thalla engane sahikkum saare…”
(“A young boy is lying in a pool of blood…His vehicle (obviously a scooter or bike) was hit by a car and the car speeded away, according to onlookers…There is a crowd…Perhaps they will take him to hospital…How his mother will face this…”)
She continued her fast walk with the rhythm peculiar to old fisherwomen of those days…beating her chest and weeping…shouting…
Remembered this, when I read this story. These days, media is able to reach out to a large audience with stories like this…I am not sure whether the real purpose of drawing attention to the social insecurity which is rising with the rising heap of wealth people and nations are accumulating is being served by sharing and forwarding such stories…

 M G Warrier

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