The ‘Custom’ Of Murdering One’s Parents in Tamil Nadu

I have stopped writing blog for couple of months but this news made me write immediately. I got the shock of my life when I saw news in Yahoo which says 'Poor men killing mothers in Tamil Nadu'. It's really hard to digest, but the fact is that this is happening in interior parts of Tamil Nadu. Poverty -stricken men are performing a ritual and killing their elderly mothers in Tamil Nadu's industry hub of Virudhunagar, a magazine has reported.. "Young family members of this district in southern Tamil Nadu have been pushing their infirm, elderly dependents to death because they cannot afford to take care of them".

There is an accepted so called ritual but it is a murder practice which is called 'Thalaikoothal'. Thalaikoothal works thus: an extensive oil bath is given to an elderly person before the crack of dawn. The rest of the day, he or she is given several glasses of cold tender coconut water. Ironically, this is everything a mother would've told her child not to do while taking an oil bath. ,"Tender Coconut water taken in excess causes renal failure," says Dr.Ashok Kumar a practising physician in Madurai. By evening, the body temperature falls sharply. In day or two, the old man or woman dies of high fever. This method is fail -proof "because the elderly often do not have the immunity to survive the sudden fever," says Dr.Kumar.

So should we simply build a well in every district of every town-so that any one who thinks he has an 'expensive' family member can have them go and jump in? Wouldn't that also reduce all the head ache of buying so much oil, milk and injections? Should the children who murder their parents be allowed to have children of their own? There are questions most authorities fail to ask. Local doctors, village heads and district magistrates are witness to ritual murders and collective abandoning from distinction between crime custom and reality. I can only say that the practise enjoys covert social acceptance and no one complains.

Indian are known for their respect and unconditional love towards their parents. "Parents are supreme Gods". India has face riots, famines, floods and draughts. So many unnamed mortals died a silent death under the plethora of money-less existence. Truly, the rich is becoming richer and the poor is unfortunately being murdered-by the sweat of reality and the dust and grime left of the ash of their dreams-broken, killed and burnt.

Are we so poor that we unmask the devil of helpless poverty to kill our parents by our own hands? Helpless poverty. That's a term we have heard a million times-mostly over used. Has poverty depressed our Humanity to a blithe? can we improve the situation? Can we change what we see? Is the urban India even unaware that people are not just dying out of poverty but they're killing too.? Are we too late already?