Illegal Advisor

                                     Legal corner:

I seldom miss a chance to read the column in any magazine in which readers do ask questions being answered by so called  (s)experts. Some of them are quite revealing. I rarely pay much attention to similar Q&A columns dealing with legal issues. They are replete with matters related to property dispute within the family or divorce laws of different communities. Not interested.

Once, however I read a short narration of a woman who was seeking legal advice. This short anecdote has had an overwhelming impact on my psyche and whenever I narrate this story to anyone I get a lump in my throat  and my voice somehow gets choked.

This lady after her husband’s early death, had brought up her only son with great difficulties. She just had a house left by the husband in a prime locality. Somehow she managed the two ends meet and gave best of education to her son who eventually went to America. There he got married to a firangin and soon had a son. The lady was left all alone but was still contended that she had done her bit.

After some gap the son calls and tells her that he is well settled now and wants to take her along to America so that all of them could live together. The proposal was like offering eyesight to a blind man. The son came to India and said that as there will be no one behind, the house has to be disposed off. The lady was  initially not inclined to this idea for sentimental reasons but eventually rationalised that as she has to live with her son and the grandchild happily ever after, there was hardly any rationale for holding on to this structure of brick and mortar. The house was sold off for substantial price. Within no time, travelers cheque, Bank draft, visa and air ticket  everything was arranged.

Eventually they left for the airport.  Their flight was reportedly delayed by couple of hours. The son took all the documents  and went for the check-in asking his mother to wait in the lounge till his return. After waiting for a nearly 3 hours when the mother got worried and enquired, she was told that the Pan-Am flight to US had left as per the schedule an hour- and-a- half  back. Her son’s name was there in the ticked passengers list. Her own name did not figure in the reservation list of that flight, altogether.

In that magazine the lady was seeking expert’s advise if there is any legal remedy available to her woes. Beyond this I couldn’t read what the  legal expert had to offer her as advice. In all probability no legal recourse would be available because the makers of the “law” might never have visualized this kind of a situation.

My own personal advice to her is rather straight forward – “Shoot the bastard”.

On second thoughts, this humble piece of advice seems to be slightly impractical on two counts

       (i)  she is left with no money to  reach USA or even buy a murder weapon to implement it.

       (ii) even if opportunity is provided to her to accomplish the mission, she is likely to ditch me at the last moment.

        There is a good probability that she will get upset with me over calling him a bastard.

Most of us would never be able to understand what these specimens are made of.  

In fact I fail to understand as to why that bastard had to do all this. Might as well had just asked for it!.

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NOTE: It may appear that the senti anecdote has been taken from one of those circulating emails which everyone keeps forwarding. It is not.