Lonely among the crowd.....the changing social fabric of Kerala

I was really happy about the greenery when I started composing this photo, till I came across this elderly lady alone, taking care of the belongings of other family members who were having a gala time swimming in the stream nearby. However the same joy was not reflected on this elderly lady's face. Was the perils of old age bothering her?...was her thoughts going back to her youth...where is her husband...did she accompany this group willfully or just because she did not have any other alternatives left...all these thoughts passed through my mind, when I composed it, and continues to do so... Is it the reflection of the state of the elderly in Kerala, whose social fabric has changed considerably due to the shift from joint families to nuclear families. Since the job opportunities were minimal within Kerala, the younger generation of Kerala migrated to other parts of the world, leaving behind the elderly. Still, spending the old age at an old age home is considered as a social taboo, and most of the elderly prefer to live alone, at the risk of being easy prey to anti social elements. Now people have started accepting the idea of old age homes, and still there are not enough of them, which are priced correctly, without compromising on the amenities and good service. We might to do a feature on this in the future.