You gave me life and I’m taking your life!

Is it wrong to send your parents to old age homes? Is it ethically, morally and emotionally right? Is the western culture warping our values? These are the few questions that remain unanswered because there is an ongoing trend of sending parents to the old age homes no matter how debatable it is.

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Unbelievably, the old age homes are mushrooming all over and the debate seems to continue whether or not children should send their parents to old-age homes at the time of life when they need the support and care of their children the most. The issue of sending parents to the old age homes has been targeted to the educated, working class who has miscellaneous excuses for their deed.

We have all right to sit back and give our opinions and criticize the act of such children who appear to us the unkind human beings. While the debate on this distressing topic continues, another heartrending issue has raised our eye-brows. The poverty-stricken people in Tamil Nadu’s industry hub of Virudhunagar are left with no other alternative than to kill their old parents for the matter of fact that they can’t afford to take care of them.

Shocked! Mocking at the poor conditions prevailing at the region the issue truly is tear-jerking and can give you goose-bumps. The children of this poor district in southern Tamil Nadu are pushing their elderly dependents to death.

Thalaikoothal is the name given to the process of giving leisure oil bath to newborn children but the definition has changed in the recent past. It’s now the name given to the slow murder. Poor conditions prevailing in district is forcing the children to kill their own parents who gave them life. Imagine the state of mind of parents who are insecure of their own children!

The oil bath is given to elderly people before crack of dawn and the entire day they are given glasses of tender coconut water (given in excess, it causes renal failure and the fall of the body temperature thereby causing the death). Other way to make the elderly people sleep forever is the dissolved mud into the water which they are forced to drink thus causing indigestion and finally death. Also, there is the ‘Death Doctor’ who administers lethal injections to the people when called for by the family members.

Ironically, Thalaikoothal is not considered a murder and no one complains of this heart-throbbing deed. Is this ritual goodbye to a loved one who had lived a full life justified for the matter of fact that the children are not able to take care of their parents due to poverty?

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