Social media is one of the best mediums to reach a wider spectrum of people across the world in a very short time. Earlier it was not possible, but thanks to Mark Zuckerberg who brought the world closer with the help of Facebook, it is now. With time, however, people have began misusing this platform for personal gains; for getting more shares and likes for their post people post anything on social media without any verification and something similar seems to have happened in this case too.
A viral image of a grand-daughter meeting her grandmother at an Old Age Home had appeared in the local newspaper in Gujarat in the year 2007 and soon the copies of the same went viral on social media.
It is said that a picture tells the story a hundred times better compared to text, and something similar happened in this case. People saw the image on the social media with the caption “On a school trip to an Old Age home the girl saw her grandmother”. The image had been shared widely on all the social media platforms without any verification if the story was recent or old.
The vitality of the image crossed all the boundaries and well-known people like the Chief Minister of Delhi Mr. Arvind Kejriwal and famous cricketer Harbhajan Singh also shared this image on their social media walls without any verification. Nobody was aware of the facts hidden behind this image and no one tried to find out whether the information was correct or not.
Meanwhile, BBC India came out with the real version of the story. The reason behind BBC being able to give the facts behind the viral image is their previous connection with the information. According to sources in BBC, following the publishing of this image in the local newspaper in the year 2007, BBC had published it on their platform on the day of World Photography Day.
According to BBC, This photo is 11 years old and this had been taken in the old age home situated at Ghodsar in Ahemadabad. The girl you see in this image is now grown up, and she was not aware that her granny was staying in an old age home then as it was told to her that she went to stay with her relatives.
Following the discovery of the news going viral on the social media, BBC had decided to go to the same Old Age Home along with the granddaughter Bhakti where the granny Damayanti is staying to this date, to have a small chat to find out the truth behind the story.
According to Bhakti, her grandmother had decided to stay here in the old age home on her own wish. “Back then I was not aware that I would meet my granny in this Old Age Home. She told me that she had only decided to stay in an Old Age Home,” said Bhakti adding that “At that time I became emotional when I met her here as I have a great bonding with my granny.”
When the BBC reporter asked her as to why she is not taking her granny home, now that she is grown up Bhakti said that she cannot do it now as her granny is now used to staying here and she does not want to leave this place and come back home. “We all are in very good terms and she keeps talking to us on a regular basis. She also keeps me visiting. People are speculating that there is something wrong, but there is nothing wrong between my granny and my parents and if it was like that then I would have never stayed with my parents,” she said.
Bhakti also narrated that on 12th September 2007 when she met her granny in this Old Age Home, it was ‘Grandparents Day’ and she had not expected to meet her granny there as she had never told them where she would stay. Bhakti added that “She never wanted to disclose her whereabouts to us, but when we met, we both became sentimental and started crying.”
Meanwhile, granny Damayanti approved Bhakti’s statement saying that she is here at this old age home by her own wish. “It has nothing do with our relationship, I love my children and they love me too. My son talks to me every day, my daughter-in-law is also very caring. I keep visiting them on a regular basis and have breakfast with them sometimes,” said Damayanti.
It is very difficult to know the real story behind granny Damayanti staying in the Old Age Home despite having loving children and grandchildren. But one thing is for sure – there is an existence of Old Age Homes because when parents become old, children want them to stay away. How many parents do for their children! But every parent is not lucky to have the same things back in their old age. When you read this story think of the number of people you know who have pushed their parents into the old age homes. Please do share your views on this story!
