Editor over phone: “How do people die in Goa?”
I (not well-travelled, so not sure whether people die
differently elsewhere) think: “We stop breathing.”
But
I say, knowing he needs a 1000 word article: “I’ll write about it.”
Those
of us who don’t die young must live to old age. Creaky bones, incontinence,
malfunctioning brains, onset of deafness/blindness and lack of mobility have to
be dealt with: as much by the care-givers as by the old. Much though we love to
tom-tom our traditions of caring for our parents, lack of time, space,
resources (another word for money) and (wo)man-power have given rise to the
need for old-age ‘homes’.
Goa
is schizophrenic. On one hand we have the with-it youngsters hip-hopping all
over the beach belt, and on the other we have retirees flocking in from distant
lands for peace and quiet through the dinner and dessert time of their lives.
Homes
for the aged have sprouted in several villages. Closest to us in nearby Guirim
is ‘Reach Out’ which takes in even bed-ridden seniors and provides 24-hour
medical and nursing care.
Down
South in Ponda is Sneha Mandir, an approximately 30-year-old complex of twelve
cottages, run by the Goa Hindu Association Trust. It is a secular NGO
supported monetarily by 2,500 members, donors and ‘well-wishers’. A central
block (which has a dining room, kitchen, two television rooms -one for men and
one for women because generally men and women like to watch different things –,
a library and a lecture room) encourages interaction and camaraderie amongst
residents to make them feel part of an extended family. 12 trained
nurses and 12 helpers work in shifts to give 24-hour care. There is a
Geriatric Centre for bedridden patients with a physiotherapy and surgical
centre (open also to non-residents in the area), a yoga instructor, a mobile
clinic and ambulance service (serving 8 villages in the area) as well as a Home
Nursing School (funded by the Goa Government) which provides free education to
20 nursing students a year, on the proviso that their practical training is
done at the Complex. The inmates (is residents a better word?) interact with
the outside community. They ‘adopt’ high school students and provide them with
books, uniforms, fees. They sometimes tutor and guide them as well, in their
studies. If any of the students show potential for further study, that further
expenditure is met by the Trust. In turn students spend a lot of time with the ajee-ajobas.
Not always are the elderly abandoned. Quite often they need
to be in homes because their children are working/living abroad, or because they
themselves are unmarried/childless. Sometimes, though, life is cruel.
Posh retirement
colonies are coming up in Siridao and Nachinola. They are called ‘independent and assisted
living quarters for 60 plus individuals’. Builders are “providing retirement
homes like those offered in the UK, US and Japan, but to suit the Goan
budget". These up-market ‘Homes’ are fully air-conditioned, have 24-hour
security and power back-up, medical services, senior-friendly modular kitchens
and wheelchair accessibility inside and outside the house.
At the other end of the spectrum, at Lar Santa Margarida in
Divar, is a Home for the Aged is run by the Poor Sisters of Our
Lady. It’s the ancestral home of the late Custodio Manuel Gomes Pereira. His
wife, Lillian, donated it to the Poor Sisters of Our Lady in 1986 to provide
solace to others like her, who had nobody to look after their needs.
Whether at
home or in a Home, when Death comes a-knocking, funerals follow. In Goa, like
in most parts of India, provision is made for Hindu cremation, and
Muslim/Christian burials. There are no provisions for Jews/ Parsi death rituals
in Goa.
Until
a few decades ago, Hindu landowners cremated family members in their fields.
The others took the bodies to the cremation grounds located on the outskirts of
their village. Some of the cremation grounds, like the one at Mapusa is big
enough to have a jogging track in it. The only ‘gas-chamber’ in Goa is in Ponda
and I couldn’t confirm whether it’s working. We continue to burn the trees to
burn the dead. Just wondering: how come some entrepreneur hasn’t yet developed
a plantation of burnable wood? After all, everyone must die, and we are an
overpopulated nation. Commerce could overtake spookiness. (As an aside: The
Sangolda crematorium is surrounded by homes and the one at Saligao has a
building facing it which I’m told is unoccupied because no one wants to see the
smoking/smouldering dead from their windows.)
The
Muslims are having a problem. Their burial ground in South Goa is opposite the
garbage dump at Sonsoddo. This was allotted to them by the government after
many years of correspondence and requests.
Taking
a quote from the internet: “…Goa has around two lakh Muslims and only one
cemetery. The 14,000 sq feet cemetery, which stands on top of the Pajifond
Hill, is over 150 years old and was donated by a Muslim family. The problem
with this cemetery is that it has a gradient of 55 degrees but there is no
proper access road to it. This makes it impossible to carry a body on the
shoulders for burial. Due to its rocky soil, fresh graves too cannot be dug too
deep," said Abdul Matin Carol, general secretary of Masjid Goasiya Ahle
Sunnatul Jamat. He added that heavy rains often let buried bodies to float up
emitting foul smell.
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Thanks for the greatfull post.
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