THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Valsala Ammal, a maths teacher who retired from Islahiya Public School, Malappuram, found strolling on the streets of Thampanoor here on November 5 has been lodged at the destitute rehabilitation centre at Kalladimukham. The teacher, who has an MSc and B.Ed degrees, had said she would live only with her son. But now M. R. Vidya, the lady who found her from the railway station, has traced her son, Surya Sai aka Vishnu, a 22-year-old autorickshaw driver in the capital city.
Sadly he is on the run from Railway Protection Force for stealing 120-litre diesel from the railway yard. He said his mother is mentally challenged and is not ready to look after her. Ms Valsala, 63, was found in tattered clothes by Ms Vidya. After she posted her pictures on her Facebook, one of her former students immediately recognised her. Within no time, Thiruvananthapuram sub-collector Divya S. Iyer shifted her to the rehabilitation centre run by the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. But over the last several days she started trusting Ms Vidya and opened up to her.
“Valsala teacher had worked in two Sainik Schools outside Kerala with one of them being in Secunderabad. She told me that her late husband, Soma Sharma, had been ill-treating her. Later, her family also took away her property pushing her into begging. In fact, she keeps saying that as per her caste, they are not supposed to look at other men, except her late husband and son,” said Ms Vidya, a computer assistant at minister K. T. Jaleel’s office. Over the last several days, she has been on a mission to trace the teacher’s elusive son. Finally, she located the autorickshaw driver.
“Vishnu had got bail from RPF in 2014 and went absconding. Now if he is caught, he has chances of getting three years' imprisonment. He does not want to take care of her as it was his mother who stopped his education at eighth standard,” she said. Ms Iyer said she was aware of the latest developments and Senior Citizens Tribunal headed by the RDO would take action against Vishnu as well as the teacher’s mother, Rajammal, and sister Thankamma Ammal who are staying in Pettah. “Valsala teacher is being cared by doctors and counsellors now. She is improving day by day and has started slowly opening up,” she said.
