Hungry, homeless & without help

BARASAT: In a country where members of the Parliament are not satisfied with a Rs 50,000 pay packet every month, a septuagenarian ailing couple is spending sleepless nights under the open sky, embracing the rain helplessly after being driven out of their rented room.
For the last six days, 79-year-old Bijoy Bose and his wife Kalpana, 72, have not had a morsel of food or even a drop of water.
They couple has no complaint and no malice for the landlord. "The poor man has a family to feed. How could he keep us when we were not able to pay him rent for three months," said Kalpana. This, after their landlord convinced' them to sell off their utensils and pay him his dues, and then drove them out of the Netaji Pally tenement.
The fiercely self-respecting couple worked as cooks at a catering firm until June when age, fever and arthritis prevented them from even getting out of bed. Even in these desperate circumstances, they have not asked anybody for help, choosing to wait out their last breaths under a tree instead.
It was here in front of a ladies hostel on Barasat-Barrackpore Road that hostel superintendent Trishna Roychowdhury found them shivering after getting soaked in the rain on Friday. She offered them food but they were so worn out that they could not even eat. Roychowdhury asked some local boys to shift them to a nearby club where the couple stayed for the night. In the morning, they were driven out by locals.
This is the first time that the childless couple knows what it is to be homeless.
Moved by their courage, more than their plight, Roychowdhury persisted in trying to help them. "I felt helpless. I contacted local councillor Kanika Roychowdhury but she was busy in a meeting."
The couple then staggered to the open verandah of a nearby school for another night. Early in the morning they were seen sitting huddled in a corner, cuddled to seek each other's warmth. Someone had been kind enough to give them an almost-empty tube of mosquito repellent.
Informed by locals, the Barasat police met the couple twice to help them return to their rented house. "Our men met the couple and enquired about the landlord but they are so self-respecting that they were reluctant to give us his name or to go back. We then approached to the SDO to see if some arrangement could be made at an old-age home," said Barasat IC Shyamal Sarkar.
Late on Sunday, police rescued the couple and admitted them to Barasat hospital. "They are extremely malnourished, and physically and mentally exhausted. We will ensure that they get proper treatment, food and rest in the hospital before we shift them to some shelter. In the meantime, we are talking with some NGOs that run shelters for the elderly," said North 24-Parganas additional SP SMH Meerza.
The couple only wishes they had a BPL card. "In spite of several visits to a councillor we could not manage to get the card," said Bijoy.