Securing your house before going on tour - Tips for Senior Citizens

Securing your house before going on tour

This note is meant for those living alone, especially senior citizens. Your house has to be secured against theft, burglary, trespass or abuse during your absence. Here are a dozen ideas serving that end, before you proceed on travel.

1. Don’t announce to the entire world that you are going to be away. Avoid loud discussions about travel your plans with neighbors in public places or in the presence of servants. Be discrete to extent feasible.

2. See that you take adequate measures to handle regular visitors or vendors like paper boys, Milk supplier, postman etc in your absence. If you are away for a few days, anyone can notice newspapers strewn all over your front yard or overflowing letters in your mailbox. This will give ideas to thieves to plan an attack.

3. Leave a word with trust worthy neighbors to keep an eye for any untoward happenings and to alert you

4. Leave urgent contact numbers (not just yours  but also of those through whom someone can reach you in case of emergency) with people whom you trust.

5. Secure doors and windows properly.

6. Shift valuables to a safe locker in a bank

7. Ensure that electricity, water, gas and similar utilities are turned off. For example, if you leave inlet water line open in a sump, accumulated water will overflow resulting in not only wastage of water but also give away clues about your absence.

8. Use social media like FaceBook and Twitter responsibly. Dangers are real.

9. Most seniors do not trust the police as they fear that informing them to keep a watch might work adversely. During the past couple of years image of police has improved and depending on rapport you have with your local police, decide accordingly.

10. Set up CCTV cameras at strategic points with recording to a system connected to Internet such that it can be accessed in case of need. Don’t switch off this circuit!

11. If the house is secluded you may think of electric fencing.

12. If you engage a part time gardener or watchman in your absence, please do have his past verified by police

Old Age Home for Gods

Old Age Home for Gods

You may wonder what I am talking about. Haven’t you seen collections of discarded photos / pictures of Gods in temple compounds heaped upon cement platforms around trees? Gods, represented by their photos, who have served their purpose – old pictures in frames, broken glass, worn out frames, de-colored images – all constitute retiree or “older-adult” among our gods who are no longer needed in Puja rooms. They find their way in “old age homes” as mentioned above, in temples.

Some months ago when we took up painting / white washing of our house we did the same thing. We took the opportunity to de-cluster (downsize) our house and the Puja Room was no exception. From nearly 40+ photos we reduced it to just about 8. All the gods whom we ‘retired’ went to occupy some shaded place under a tree in a nearby Hanuman Temple.

You may have seen that temples are not different from other ‘business’ houses in re-cycling or selling away things they accumulate, be it sarees gifted to  deities, coconuts or even human hair offerings.  In Pune, I have seen that complete raw coconuts (without removing fiber) (“Kobara bondas”) being offered in Ganesha temples making easy to re-sell those long lasting products. Framed Pictures or photos of ‘retired’ gods are no exception. Shops selling photo / picture frames buy them for recycling. Broken glass goes for melting and making second grade items.

When some persons are brain dead their organs are harvested for use in others in transplantation. Such dead persons continue to live through others. Similarly ‘dead’ gods also live in other goods in some other format / configuration, decorating some politician or young couple.

When I see a large number of god photos deserted in temple walls I am pained. Gods face the same fate as men as they age and are no more useful. When they were ‘young’ or new, these gods received lot of respect; they were decorated with flowers, daily puja was done with incense sticks etc. When I find some stray dog ease himself at such collections where god photos are strewn or stacked, my heart misses a beat or two.

Isn’t there a better way of disposing off old unwanted gods whose time is gone?