| ruck |
Posted
on 27-May-03 09:09 PM
Elderly couple takes to begging after expulsion from Briddhashram
By Jitendra Shah
KATHMANDU, May 27
Love is not the passion of the youth only. As in all tales of exemplary love, Gopi Subedi, 72 and Manmaya Adhikari, 51, are determined to continue their relationship, while begging for alms in the streets. Three months ago, the two were expelled from the oldage home in Pashupatinath, the Briddhashram, after their secret love marriage became known to the staff there.
The two are currently celebrating the 100 days of their love marriage at their roofless residence, an old water tank in Dhansinghkot, Jorpati-4. They are hopeful of finding a job soon, after which they can give up begging and live a decent life. After discovering that they could not produce their own child, they have taken to doting on children in the neighbor-hood.
"I have requested the local VDC officials to allow me to build a hut on the unoccupied land in my birth locality," said Gopi. "But they informed me that laws forbid that. Nobody listens to the old," Gopi complained.
After being rendered homeless and without a family, Gopi had spent four years in the Briddhashram, while Manmaya spent ten months there. After having a love affair in the Briddhashram for two months, the couple married in the garden behind the Briddhashram. According to the officials at the Briddhashram, they left on their own after being ostracized by the inmates. "We gave them all their belongings, except cot," said Arjun Prasad Gautam, chief of the Ashram.
However, the couples claim is that they were kicked out from the home. "They forced us to leave saying that it was forbidden to get married in the Ashram, as that would pollute the moral environment there," the couple said. They added that they were facing inordinate problems living in a world where they have no relatives, sympathizers and money.
"The roof of the water tank leaks. On rainy nights, I have to remain awake throughout," said Manmaya, adding, "I always pray to god to prevent wind and rain." Similarly, Gopi said that they have tried real hard to get a job, but to no avail. "No one believes that we can work. Even former MP Bidya Bhandari told us to turn to our old acquaintances," he said.
This is Gopis fourth marriage. He lost all his property during his earlier three marriages, which resulted in his being disowned by his relatives and friends. "Relatives turn a deaf ear to my plea. While I had money, everyone used to listen," said Gopi.
Since a job seems a faraway dream, the two are busy begging for alms for sustenance.
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| Prempujari |
Posted
on 28-May-03 07:01 AM
I recall my visit to bridhdhashram with NTV crew when I was in Nepal. The experience was really painful. The environment inside the ashram was really gloomy. The crowd of old people full of frustrations and complains, gathered in a large room. One person in the crowd caught attention of everyone visiting the ashram. He was a man somewhere in his early 60's, a bit shy and reluctant to speak, and he was engaged on something he was working on. The interviewer decided to interview him. On being asked why he was in there, since he looked pretty young to be in the bridhdhashram, he replied with smiley face and misty eyes, "Shrimati marye pachi buhari le malai dekhi sahyena, buhari sanga jahile pani jhagada paryo, ani chora buhari le malai yaha lyaaera raakhi diye". We were stunned. Later we learned from one of the caretakers in bridhdhashram that his son and daughter in law never visited him after they left him there.
On our way back, everyone in the NTV van was cursing his son and daughter in law.
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| Poonte |
Posted
on 28-May-03 07:52 AM
About 20 years ago, as a high school kid, I too used to volunteer every Saturday morning to work with the Sisters of Charity at the Bridhashram--bathing and feeding the elderly residents there, and sometimes even cleaning some residents' AACHI and SOO from their beds. The work was obviously not very alluring, but, after a whole morning's work, ghaam taap dai tee bridha haru sanga usinya mota chamal ko bhat ra guff-suff share garda ta ramailo hunthyo. I always found it amusing that despite the immense destitution that they were bestowed with, some of them carried a keen sense of humor. I suppose the above story adds a sense of passion and love to the misery that they live with every day.
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