Ghanshyam did not leave behind a fortune. He had run a small bicycle tyre-and-tube business in Indore, owned a modest house and raised four children – two sons and two daughters. His wife died when the children were young. He spent the last four years of his life at Apna Ghar, an old home in Bhopal, removed from his family’s love and care. After the 70-year-old’s death, the authorities waited for two days for his children to claim the body; nobody came.
Ghanshyam died on August 4. The old-age home informed his family and repeatedly tried to persuade them to come to Bhopal. They responded with excuses. After dilly-dallying, they told the old-age home to cremate him and send them the death certificate.
Madhuri Mishra, who runs Apna Ghar, said: “His youngest daughter was around two when his wife died. There was a time when one father could raise four or five children. Today, four children together could not look after one father,” she said.
Ghanshyam had earned his living selling bicycle tyres and tubes. He had a small house in Indore. According to Mishra, the property was sold, and the money was distributed among his children.
She said the Apna Ghar once called an emergency contact Ghanshyam had provided.
“We called the number and were told, ‘I don’t know him. I have abandoned him. I have nothing to do with him.’ We were also told that the money from their father’s house had been divided among the brothers and sisters and that they no longer had any relationship with their father,” Mishra told NDTV.
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By then, Ghanshyam was partially paralysed. He struggled to speak and could barely walk.
“When Ghanshyam ji came to us, he was ill and could barely speak. He told us he had a small tyre-and-tube shop and a small house. Half of his body was paralysed,” Mishra said.
He wasn’t brought to the home by his children.
According to Mishra, Ghanshyam had reached Bhopal’s ISBT, where buses from Indore arrive. Some young social workers found him there and brought him to Apna Ghar. A man who had once held the hands of four children as they learnt to walk had arrived at a bus terminal in old age, partially paralysed and virtually alone.
For the next four years, the old-age home became his address. Mishra says the old-age home repeatedly tried to contact the family whenever Ghanshyam’s health deteriorated. “Whenever he fell ill, we took him to hospital and tried to call them. They did not come. We continued looking after him,” she said.
Then came August 4. Ghanshyam died.
The old-age home did not have facilities to preserve a body indefinitely. Yet the management waited, hoping someone from the family would arrive.
“Even after his death, we tried several times. We tried the address in Panchvati, Indore, but could not find anyone there. We waited, but nobody came. Finally, with the help of the police, we performed his last rites,” she said.
Mishra says one of Ghanshyam’s daughters was upset over how his property had been divided. “The daughter said her father had given his property to the sons. She said, ‘I got nothing, so why should I come?’ The sons said, ‘What did he ever do for us?'” he told NDTV.
Ghanshyam’s funeral is over, but the story is not.
The family now wants his death certificate.
“I will absolutely not give Ghanshyam ji’s death certificate to his family. People abuse us and ask who we are to decide this. But we had a bond with him. If they did not come to see him when he was alive, and did not come when he died, why should we now give them his death certificate?” Mishra said.
