Lonely...

With Aashayein foundation again...today's venue for the Sunday Breakfast Activity was an old age home...I was a little anxious about this one...I can handle kids but I have never been with so many unknown old people together...I was not at all sure how to act or react...upon reaching there, we were led to a room where all the old ladies were staying...old iron single beds lined up one after the other in a large room...still heavy with the weight of hesitation, my feet refused to move and I stood at a corner for quite some time...it was then that one of the old ladies asked something in the local language - something that I don't understand...one of our fellow volunteers came to our rescue and acted as a translator...that broke the ice...what followed were some tales of remorse and some stories of life...one of the women's right limb is polio affected...she is unmarried...has a sister living in US, nephews and nieces working in the IT industry in US and India (something that she proudly stated)...but still, she's here...one gentleman, as farside pointed out, likes discuss the philosophy of life...the eldest of them all - the captain of the ship, is 99 years old...at that ripe age, he not only insists on doing his chores by himself, he even goes to the bank every month to collect his own pension - something that I found incredible...had anyone asked me to guess his age, I would probably have guessed in late 70s...age being just a number is not untrue after all! another lady was too overwhelmed to have "youth" (as she exclaimed) among them...she said because we're visiting, they're getting special breakfast today, which makes her even more happy...one could see the glitter in her eyes through the thick old fashioned glasses...we spent some time with them chit-chatting, seeing their premises, their temple...one of them said that these days, both men and women are too career-oriented, they go to work early and are not back home till late...in such a scenario, living or not living with children is pretty much the same...we also tried to inquire when the captain is hitting his century so that we could come and celebrate...apparently he doesn't remember his date of birth...more importantly, what he remembers that he is 99 and still going strong...

one more thing I liked about this place is that it houses both, old people and kids...I think this is wonderful for both the kids and the oldies...the kids were out since morning on some program and hence we were not able to meet them...

I was neither capable nor worthy of deciding who to blip and who to ignore and hence the collage today...these were originally shot in bnw but somehow they seemed too sad to me...so I changed them to colour...at least, I can figuratively add some colour to their lives...

2 hours later, I was at one of the happening pubs of the city, meeting folks from the trek...though there was lot of laughter and cheer at the pub, I was not able to enjoy much...the stark contrast between the morning and the afternoon was too much for me to handle!