Old Age Homes----> Pillars of Hope & Sadness

                              In Hinduism, human life is believed to comprise four stages. These are called "Ashramas" and every man should go through each of these stages. It was divided into four categories. They are ---->

1. The First Ashrama - "Brahmacharya" or the Student Stage
2. The Second Ashrama - "Grihastha" or the Householder Stage
3. The Third Ashrama - "Vanaprastha" or the Hermit Stage
4. The Fourth Ashrama - "Sannyasa" or the Wandering Ascetic Stage

                            The above model was followed years back and in this modern age it has almost seized to exist. Well, we think it has but many in this society of ours think otherwise and prefer to implement it. The elderly people of our generation believe that the young generation now-a-days doesn't pay any respect to old traditions and customs. So I guess a section of the younger lot have decided to pay the bygone customs a visit. But they could have selected something better than what they have decided to implement, something else which could have helped the society to move forward but they fell in LOVE with something that is slowly poisoning our society and leading the minimum values of life to its destruction.
                           We all know what Student Stage and Householder Stage means. Let us get familiar with Hermit Stage and Wandering Ascetic Stage. In Hermit Stage a man used to leave the house and go to the forest with his wife and spend the life of a hermit while in Wandering Ascetic Stage he used to renounce the world altogether.
                           The 3rd Stage has now come to life once more, Forests have now turned to Old Age Homes and now aged / retired people go there not out of choice but out of compulsion. Is such a thing desirable?
                           We are forgetting the basic definition of modernization. The youth have started to believe that if they can remove the people belonging to the old way of thinking then only they can become part of the 1st World. What they are overlooking is that in that attempt they are destroying our ethics and values which bind our society together. They are forgetting that the people whom they are sending to the old age homes are their own. They are their parents who have looked after them even before they were born.
                           It's a shame to the society which is allowing such a thing to happen. Why should there be old age homes for people who have children to look after them? But we have mainly for them these days. It is really a sad thing for entire mankind. A child cannot look after his/her parents. The parents have never once complained about looking after them, they have never said anything while tending to their every need. But what do they get in return? "Leave us alone. We want peace in life" etc-----> nothing more, nothing less.

                          All the people are not like this. Definitely not. But compared to them the rest of the society holds a greater percentage. Old age homes are increasing now a days. Elderly, aged, weak people are seen there, they spend the last days of their life together like a family. They smile but they do that to hide the pain deep down withing them. Some suffer from trauma, sadness. This pain and sadness cannot be cured nor can it be seen from outside. Some feel that they are perhaps better of without their family as they would have got nothing better than criticism for being old. They prefer to go to Ashrams or similar places meant for them and prefer to sign a virtual bond with life.
                         Is this scenario desirable? Some leave their aged mother or father at an old age home and go off to some foreign country promising them that on returning he would take them back. But it never happens. Time passes on and these old men/women become history for them. These are true facts prevalent in the society. Neglect of Parents have become such an issue that Indian Government has passed "The maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens bill 2006", which makes it imperative for adult children to look after their parents.
                         These elderly people feel sad but even in these moments they try to find some moments of joy by talking to other people with whom they are staying, sharing their past life and cherishing good old memories. One memory leads to another and so on. They might have been deprived of the love of their family which they created but in Old Age Home they find a bigger family sharing the same pain and same joy. Old Age Homes also provide shelter to people who have nobody else to look after them. In that regard it's a great thing for these kind of people.

                         Old Age Homes thus stand as the Pillars of both Hope and Sadness. It symbolizes life as a whole and provides a shade. It is almost like GOD is giving shelter to the people. Each and every brick and corner of such houses stores emotions and feelings of people who have lived there and tells tales of many miseries. But one have to have the ear to hear them.

                        We should make sure that our parents don't have to face such a scenario. They have looked after us, cared for us. Looking after them shouldn't be considered as a duty or responsibility but as a honour that GOD has bestowed upon us. I hope in future this scenario changes, but only time will tell. We can only hope and pray.