Senior citizens, monsoon and aid

While I was talking to an assistant nurse at Chettrapa Health Post, a two and half hour drive over bumpy roads from Charikot, an elderly woman wearily walked in. Every wrinkle of her face had a story to tell. As I continued to talk to the assistant nurse, the woman started to rub her eyes. It probably was itching. Seeing the elderly woman itch, Mithu Suneal, an Assistant Nurse Midwife went to the woman and politely, asked what was wrong.

"My eyes are itching badly," I overheard the woman speak. Her voice was pressed and she found it difficult to utter the words. Mithu Suneal put a hiatus on our conversation and walked towards the old woman. She then put an inflammatory eye drop on her eyes. The old woman now felt better.

The conversation cut short for a while, as another patient came in, I walked towards the old woman. As I spoke the first words, I knew I would get some part of the history from the wrinkles that her face had. "Ama (mother), Namaste," I told her. She meekly uttered the same.

This was the first time I could well see her features. Her eyes looked weary of the itch. The two drops of inflammatory dose that the assistant nurse had put in her eyes found way through her wrinkled face to run down.

"What's your name Ama?" I asked. In her frail but jovial voice, she answered, "Batuli".

"What's your full name Ama?" I queried.

Having misheard her full name, I tried to correct her name.

"Batuli Jirel kya (It's Batuli Jirel)" she corrected me.

Having had lived with my great grandmother until she passed away, I had got to know parts of history that we had never known from our history books. Batuli Jirel was one of them and I was curious to know what she had to share. Having heard the earthquake of 1934 AD from my great grandmother, the very earthquake had, eventually, been the first question that I could not help asking of to Batuli.

"I was five or six years old when the earthquake came," Batuli Jirel said. "I was playing outside when that earthquake came," she continued. Batuli doesn't recall much of the earthquake apart from the earth shaking and buildings collapsing.

Now, 86 years old, Batuli Jirel tends to forget quickly. The ongoing conversation of 1934 AD earthquake skipped to the Rana regime. "I happened to pass a Rana palace in Thapathali. Then, a coin was dropped from a window," she continued to say. "When you see a coin, you have to pick it up and go inside the palace and stay with the person who threw the coin," Batuli said.

When the first earthquake of August 25 struck, Batuli was with one of her three sons in Patan. "I fell down when the earthquake came. My son carried me and took me out of the house which then collapsed," Batuli said.

During the second earthquake, she came to Chettrapa to stay with her youngest son. This time as well, she was home alone. "I stayed still and my son, who was working in the field, came rushing and pulled me out," Batuli said. "Then, my house fell," Batuli said.

Batuli is one of the around 300 elderly people living in Chettrapa VDC. As monsoon approaches, health concerns of elderly is an issue that health workers of Chettrapa Health Post are concerned of.

Sudha Giri Khadka, Axillary Nurse Midwife at the Health Post highlighted. "Around 300 elderly people live in this VDC. The monsoon is going to create a big problem for them," Sudha said adding that during monsoons, weather would get much colder during morning and night. "This could raise the number of sick people at the health post, and it would be pretty difficult for us to deal with all," Sudha said.

Chettrapa Health Post employs only five health workers. "With limited staffs at the health post, it is a bit difficult to attend all patients," both Mithu Sunel and Sudha Giri said. "While a lot of agencies have come to support us, they've not looked into elderly people and their issues," Mithu Sunel said. She further opined that elderly people seriously needed to be considered while providing aids.

Apart from the monsoon, bathroom is of another concern for the elderly, Sudha shared. "A lot of bathrooms have been destroyed. For elderly citizens like Batuli, it is of a concern."

For Batuli, all she wants is to go back to her home and stay warm and silently wants to pass away.