19 January 2016

OLDMAN AND A CAR




CAR & OLD AGE:
Most of the Odiya senior citizens have settled down at Bhubaneswar for various reasons but the most important one is the airport. Their sons or daughters want their parents to stay at Bhubaneswar so that they do not waste time and money for meeting their parents or in-laws’once three or four years.Another headache for the old people is the transport. Because they have a garage they have kept a car as a status symbol but can’t drive due to arthritis or fading eye sight. Car drivers dictate terms and are very much in demand due to these retired old couples. The car is a headache, neither it can be sold off nor used properly. The resale value is very depressing hence its kept in the garage and a driver is engaged for attending different functions with one’s own car. Some of the old couple has a sharing driver with a neighbor or friend. Few of the old man use an auto transmission scooter for moving around to save money but has to change the idea after they had fatal accidents or escaped death narrowly with only a fracture of leg. Some intelligent couples have no cars. They have kept 6 lakhs as fixed deposit and the interest they get every month (9 to 11%) is being utilized for transport in 3 or 4 wheelers, no headache of insurance, waiting in line for petrol, police harassment or flat tyres, really a novel idea. Lucky are those if son in law or son stays with these old couple. With increase in longevity of officers due to hospital and doctors, car is a necessity as well as a big burden, it all depends on one’s physical fitness. Some of the senior citizens over 80 years are driving their own cars and utilizing their old reliable friend—a car. But the bottom line is a taxi in long run is cheaper and effective, no headache of receiving or dropping any one in airport or railway station, choice is yours.
Sanjoy Kumar Satpathy(SC)

No comments:

Post a Comment