TUMAKURU: At 98, she should have been basking in the glory of a life well lived with her grandkids crowding around her. But for Bettamma, the last one year has been horrendous to say the least. She has been spending her days and nights underneath a tree in Shettigehalli village in Kunigal taluk of Tumakuru after being abandoned by her children.
Bettamma spends her time cursing her fate wondering when her misery will come to an end. The villagers give her food and had advised her children to provide her shelter. But the children refused despite several pleas made by the village panchayat. Bettamma had gone through hard times while bringing up her children and worked as a coolie in an agricultural field after her husband Kariyappa died.
The villagers have now complained to Kunigal police station. Station PSI Guruprasad has offered to mediate and make her children see sense. Though the villagers want to admit her to an old-age-home, Bettamma refused saying she wants to spend her last days in her village come what may.
“I have never done anything wrong against my children, but they abandoned me for no fault of mine,” she says. Villagers Dasegowda, Doddaboraiah and Siddappa have promised to take care of her if her children continue to ignore her. When contacted Gangaboraiah, one of Bettamma’s sons claimed they would take care of her. But her plight remains unchanged - abandoned, left to eke out her last years alone.
