Love sees elderly couple through

MADHYAMGRAM: Hand in hand, Bijoy Bose and his wife Kalpana survived immense hardship, deprivation and social indifference. They acted as pillars of strength for each other as they saw their world come crumbling down leaving them to fend for themselves under the open sky. Then came a ray of hope and promise of a shelter. However, as the couple later realised, even that came at a price they were not allowed to stay under the same roof.But, through their strong resolve, the couple showed once again that love could indeed work wonders. Bijoy and Kalpana are back together, looking after each other.
The septuagenarian couple, who were driven out of their rented room in Barasat's Netaji Pally tenement by their landlord, were later rehabilitated in Nijoloy a residential institution for destitute women run by Women's Interlink Foundation, an NGO, in North 24-Parganas' Madhyamgram. Being a home for women, men are not allowed to stay in Nijoloy. But the authorities made an exception and put up Kalpana and Bijoy in a ground-floor room. But that was only for a few hours. It soon became clear to Kalpana that her husband would be moved to a room on the first floor as the home rules wouldn't allow them to stay together.
What followed was an emotional outburst from the feeble-looking Kalpana, who, unable to come to terms with this "separation" from her husband, protested against the home authorities' decision to make them stay apart.
Taken aback, Krishna Bose, the ever-smiling in-charge of Nijoloy, said: "We never expected the soft-spoken and elderly woman to lodge such a strong protest. When she heard that we were planning to shift her husband, she started insisting that we allow her to accompany him to the first-floor room."
The woman's efforts have paid off, at least for now Kalpana and Bijoy are sharing the same room. Kalpana said she was really glad that she could apply vermilion on her forehead, something she could not do for the past few days after being driven out of home.
Bijoy, helping his wife wash her hands after finishing a meal, said: "Or kache shob somoy na thakle chole na, ekta haat okejo, thik hoy darateo pare na. O shushtho thakle ki aar ekhane thaki? Amra Kedar-e chole jetam (I have to stay by her side all the time. There is a problem with one of her hands and she cannot stand on her own as well. If she had been all right, we would have been in Kedarnath by now."
Concerned that Kalpana's husband is staying in the home, Aloka Mitra, chairperson of the NGO, said: "This place is strictly for women. We have to find a suitable solution to the issue."
The couple are, however, aware that the present arrangement is temporary. Kalpana, interacting with some of the younger inmates, said: "Kothao jabo na, amra dujonei ekhane thakbo. Swami stree ke alada thakte nei, kemon lekhapora shikhecho tomra? Gachtalateo tomader dadu shara raat jege kaashto, ami pithe haat bulie ditam (both of us will stay here. A man and his wife are meant to stay together. Don't you know this? When we were living under the tree, I would constantly comfort my husband, who would cough through the night."
Mitra believes a solution needs to be found to address such sensitive cases. "Whatever the law might say, we must find a solution so that the couple could stay together. In Germany and some other western countries, there is a concept by which senior citizens are kept in homes for destitute women and a relationship is developed between them and the younger inmates, which is akin to the one shared by grandfather/grandmother with his or her grandchildren. I want to conduct a similar experiment here."
And the concept seems to be working. Some of the inhabitants of the home have started cosying up to the affable dadu-dida, which is also bringing a smile to the faces of the elderly couple.