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OFFTRACK:
PUNE,
MAHARASHTRA
Parents' Day Out
Lonely
fathers and mothers of NRIs join forces to beat the blues
By Kanchan
Apte
It's
a full-time job staying abreast of what comes spinning out of the Indian
diaspora. Now, it's the turn of their parents back home to make news.
In another place and time perhaps they would have been called the lonely
hearts club. But their shared fortune-and isolation-as parents of Indians
who've got visa power is what unites them as the Non-Resident Indians'
Parents' Organisation (NRIPO).
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| Members
of NRIPO are advanced in years and ideas |
To be sure,
showing off newly acquired palmtops or video cameras isn't on the members'
agenda at all. Nor do they regard the NRIPO as an arena to bask in their
children's glory. Companionship, more than anything else, is what the
organisation was intended to be. Says NRIPO President M.H. Paranjape:
"The parents feel the need to meet and talk in their children's absence."
In some ways the meetings seem more like a casual encounter between old
friends than a formal fraternity. The outhouse of one of the members acts
as an office. Every Tuesday, over tea, members discuss anything from recipes
to jokes and politics. "We look forward to Tuesdays. Believe me it's
like small children eagerly waiting for a holiday," says Vasundhara
Parvate, whose children have settled in Ohio and San Francisco in the
US. Organisation member Ramesh Bharvikar remembers singing in public for
the first time in his life. It was at an NRIPO meeting. "I had never
attempted it before, but here I am not too conscious about making a mistake.
Such is the level of comfort," he says.
According
to Bharvikar, what makes it easy for the members to understand each other
is that the problems they face are similar. Usha Rairikar moved to Pune
after both her children settled abroad. A widow, she has few relatives
and friends in Pune. "I would count the hours and get bored,"
she says. Lauding the efforts of NRIPO she recalls, "I was very sick
last week and couldn't get to the doctor. It was one of the members who
helped me get to the hospital. Others not only took good care of me and
provided me with healthy food but also gave me good company during that
period, which I desperately needed."
Life
is Easier: Sometimes the assistance is at a more mundane-and routine-level.
"As we started interacting with the parents, we also realised they
face practical difficulties like paying their bills, looking after bank
accounts and handling money matters. NRIPO provides these facilities either
through its members or with the help of other associations," says
Paranjape. Such utility has borne fruit. When it started six years ago
this Pune-based organisation, the first such in the country, had 30 families
as members. The continuing stream of youngsters to foreign lands has swelled
that number to 550.
NRIPO also
organises hobby classes for members. Other activities are added on all
the time. "When we realised most of the parents were looking after
their children's investments in India we held a series of lectures on
investments and on the importance of writing a will," says Kumar
Kiwalkar, joint secretary. NRIPO has been divided into 15 sections with
each organising its own activities. Finances are managed by the members
themselves, with most of the funds coming from membership fees.
Plans include
building a sukhashram, a senior citizens' residential colony, scholarships
for needy students and day-care centers. They also do what few would expect
them to-offer counselling on visa and other requirements to people going
abroad for the first time.
And though
they aren't the complaining sort, the members do have a few grouses. For
one, they believe society looks differently at parents of NRIs. "People
get taken in by myths; they assume that because our children are abroad
we have a lot of money," says S.W. Atre, a parent of an NRI. "Of
course, I miss my children but with this organisation we have new friends
who are like-minded," he asserts.
They may
be the jetsam of the dollar dream, but these senior citizens aren't wallowing
in self-pity. While their silicon sultans are winning abroad, these elderly
denizens of Pune are chipping in by holding fort at home.
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