MANIYAPPAN

She has lost her eyesight. Her husband blames her tears for the loss of vision. She is Mony, 65-year-old mother of Maniyappan, who was beheaded by the Taliban in Afghanistan on November 25, 2005. He was a driver with the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) of the Indian Army.

The small table top in their unfinished home is full of medicine packets. And besides them are some boxes of food for their dinner. There are a few bags of cement, tools for construction, two-three old, dusty chairs, and the floor of the house is yet to be completed. The windows also remain open as the doors are still to be fitted. Raman Kutty, 74, father of the late Maniyappan, says: “Continuous rain, scarcity of workers, and lack of money stopped the construction.’’

Lack of funds...? He explains: “People say we got more than Rs 30 lakh as compensation for my son’s death. So now we come under APL (Above Poverty Line). But the reality is that we got nothing from anywhere.” Now a heart patient under treatment of the Medical College Hospital in Alappuzha, Raman Kutty has to nurse his wife, feed her, and help her with her daily needs.

Isn't Bindu, their late son's wife around to lend a helping hand? No, they say. She stays far away from home where the memorial was built for Maniyappan. She has a job at the DySP (Deputy Superintendent of Police) office and she stays there with her two sons. They are Ajayan, Class 8 student, and Ajay, in class two. She comes once a month, or sends the elder son with some money. When quizzed, Bindu doesn't want to answer. She just says her sons are studying well.

She is happy the government fulfilled all the commitments it made, including the Rs 10 lakh compensation, free education for children, medical assistance to parents and a job for her. So far, all the benefits have gone to Bindu, including the family pension, and she lives in her home at her native place which she had purchased with the compensation money.

“Some people say she has remarried. But we don’t know anything about it,” Raman Kutty said. Unfortunately, with age, Kutty's responsibilities seem to have grown. He cooks, goes out to collect medicines for himself and his wife (she's been a leukemia patient and suffers from sugar and eye problems). And he makes trips to the taluk office regularly persuading them to hand over one per cent of the land to the local organisation so that a library and reading room in the memory of their son Maniyappan could be built.