“What’s your problem if I am ready to stay here alone”?? She asked to her son, with tremendous pain in her eyes.
Her husband has passed away some years back and she painstakingly brought up her only child amidst all the problems. She educated him to the extent of making him able to get a well paying job in US. He later got married and settled in US. But his mother was not willing to leave India, as she has all the attachments with this place. Her lifespan with her husband was attached with this place. Every possible remembrance she has, she has of this place. So she decided to stay back in India and she did.
Her son after getting married applied for Green Card and became permanent citizen of US. He bought a big house there and then bought a lavish flat in India where his mother used to stay. She made more and more friends. She used to go to social gatherings in the garden of her apartment; she used to play with kids playing in there. Everything was going as she wanted it to. Her son used to come to India in vacations and go back in a month or so. She used to cherish every moment of their stay. Her son tried to convince her to come to US with them, but she used to deny every time. She had her own reasons.
One fine day, son’s wife decided to bring her statement out in front of everyone, which was being discussed in her bedroom only.
She asked her mother in law, “you either come with us to US or vacate this house and we will enroll you to old age house. This flat has huge value tag, it can be sold for around 70-75 lakhs. So please decide now only, before we leave for US.”
It was a shock for her. She looked at her son expectantly for some support, but he had already caved in to his wife. She saw the shame in his eyes, the denial to support her and she was devastated from inside. Her whole life flashed in front of her. 9 months of bearing him in her womb, every single day of his illness, the financial penury she endured to teach him, making her heart rock solid to allow him to go to US and tears rolled down her eyes. Not believing her son’s behavior and his coldness towards herself, her heart broken into million pieces. She mourned her husband’s death that time the most. Because she didn’t have time to mourn his death, as she had a son to bring up, the same son who bailed out on her now.
She decided to keep mum, nodded in affirmative and went in her room. The shameless son and his victorious (?) wife went in their room, much content with the outcome, oblivious to the real outcome.
In the night, when everything was silent as dead, the watchman sitting down at the entrance gate of apartment, heard a big thud sound and was surprised. He came running towards the origin of sound and found her lying in bloodshed. She had jumped off 11th floor, from her balcony, after going through numerous of such incidents, like one that happened that day. She couldn’t bear the thought of staying in old age house. Moreover she couldn’t bear the thought of her son betraying her and not supporting her.
The watchman went running towards flat 1101. He told the situation to her son. Her son gave him some money and packed the bags immediately and left for US, without even cremating his mother’s body, without even doing the last rituals.
This is a real story and nothing of this story is cooked up. This has happened in the apartment pretty close to where I lived. I seriously pity the mother who committed suicide, her all efforts to make her son able and a good person bore no fruits. Her “Sanskar” have gone down the drainage. I can’t imagine what she might have gone through from the moment she nodded affirmative and she jumped off the balcony. And I don’t wanna even think of it. May her soul rest in peace and may God take her good care, because her shameless son wasn’t able to.
Disclaimer: This is a real story, but I have purposefully not disclosed the location and city.
The World Through My Eyes... 
OMG… this was shocking..! children these days have no respect left for their parents. Even after cutting herself she gave him every leisure of life.. he did like this..! May his wife n children leave him when he needs them the most..! Bastard!
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It is indeed shocking… we all society people couldn’t digest the fact. We still see her smiling face in our eyes.. she was very helpful and charming. She didn’t deserve this treatment and such a ghastly death.
I feel very sorry for her.
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I dont know what to say. Can anyone be so heartless that s/he can hurt his own mother? I dont know how a person can ignore the problems of their own parents who made it possible that the child can live his own lifes. I know some people who are doing this kind of things and I can’t stop them. Makes me feel sad.
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It is happening all around us sir. I too feel bad and sad when I see or listen to such incidents.. but Kaliyug it is.. making your mother go through all this is such a shame. What not she did for him and what day he showed to her.
Sigh.
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He is indeed a bastard. I don’t know how children turn this heartless to own parents. Thinking about her makes me real sad. 😦
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no mercy, for such bastards, who can’t understand feelings…
by my side hang such bastards till death….
otherwise god will do….
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Sad, very sad. Shows the sad state of affairs of the great Indian family.
She should not have killed herself. She should have lived on.
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It is indeed sad.. but her decision to end her life was pretty valid from her point of view. She felt ashamed and devastated by the incident and couldn’t have faced the outcome. So it was her fate, in one line you can say so.
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Its really sad to see how selfish we have become. We have stopped thinking about others, especially our loved ones. Life has become so materialistic that we only think about, what we will get from any relationship, how its beneficial for “Me”. We are running after”more” money, fame, leisure or space/freedom. Most of the time people forget their responsibilities towards their own.Its pity that a mother had no choice but to embrace death as only solution for her problem.
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Exactly. The materialistic approach is what is taking toll. I mean, materialistic approach is good, but not at the cost of your loved ones. It’s sad indeed.. very sad 😦
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This seems a story so common nowadays. It’s indeed a shame that this is happening in our generation and we are all mute spectators to this. I honestly do not know how to find ways and means to solve this problem and mentally assault each youngster to take care of parents in old age. We all forget acting busy in our daily lives, so thanks, your story was a good jolt and reminder that we constantly need to remind ourselves and every young person how important our parents are to us and how they always wish well for us, which we forget as we grow.
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I see similar stories all around me and my Heart cries a thousand times.. Why these girls and boys don’t understand what their parents have done for them? This generation is not that close to their children, as compared to how close our parents were close to us. So maybe, this generation will never understand it. But still, after sacrificing their lives for us, children gift them these kind of things. It’s really sorry figure.
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This is what our society is costing for blindly following western culture. See this criminal so called well educated. He and his wife are actually ill-educated.
So please try to attach your children to our roots, to our culture, to our customs. Each of our cultural rituals are meant to form a bond in the society, which keeps us away from becoming such a devil.
Prasad, you have rightly withheld naming place and date, because I think such thing is occurring everywhere in our country now.
I feel ashamed. I am revisiting past 28 years of my life after reading this article and observing countless sacrifices that my parents have done for my small or big needs.
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Exactly. Cultural mixture is going to happen any way, we cannot stop it. But what to follow and what not to follow is in our hands. We need to keep our eyes open while copying something. Respecting your parents for what they have done to you is simply a duty one should do. It should not be a burden. But nowadays, this is what is visible everywhere. And that’s sad.
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😦 This is such a sad story. As a mother, I completely understand the mother’s feelings. Her plunge to escape life, breaks my heart. And the fact, that this man caved in to his wife…not good at all. A woman should not nor wish to control her husband. Such a sad sad story. But I thank you for sharing it. It helps other cultures understand each other. I hope this wife feels some remorse for the ultimatum she gave her mother-in-law.
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This is indeed a very sad story.. had planned to share it long ago.. but somehow couldn’t write.
It was very heart shattering.
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