Out to fulfil 70-yr-old mom’s wishes, Karnataka man takes her on a scooter-pilgrimage across India

Harsha Raj Gatty
November 24, 2018

Leaving the comforts of his marketing job, this 39-year old man is taking his aged mother on a religious pilgrimage across the country. Interestingly, the mother and son duo that has already covered nearly 28,000 kilometres so far has been travelling on a scooter.

Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra; D Krishna Kumar and his mother 70-year old mother Choodarathna have been making a stopover at each and every temple in the region. "Not many may believe, but in the last 10 months we have covered over 40,000 of such religious places, big or small we surely make it a point to visit those places," Kumar says.

Having lost her husband in 2015, in a casual conversation, Choodarathna confided to her son over her inability of not being able to see many places, especially Belur and Halebidu. "I felt terrible when she said that, having travelled across Karnataka due to my profession, I felt guilty for not being able to accommodate such small request of my mother," Krishna said.

He adds, her entire life Choodarathna had dedicated herself within the four walls of the 10 member joint family in Mysuru, without any friends or social life of her own. Though she is qualified as a Hindi teacher, yet she did not take up a job, and instead decided to dedicate herself to her family. Krishna adds that he received her utmost care and attention when he grew up.

"It was her selflessness that triggered me more to do something for her, so after 13 years being thoroughly employed, I decided to call quits from the job and decided to fulfill her wishes," Krishna says. On January 15, this year, Choodarathna decided to venture on the religious pilgrimage from Mysuru. "Initially we started with Kerala, later we moved towards other places," he says.

Incidentally, during the course of the journey, Krishna Kumar sprang a surprise to his mother by taking her to the house of her childhood friends, whom she was out of contact.  “I am so thankful for my son for getting me in touch with Chandramathi (Sagar, Shivamogga) and Kaje Jayalaxmi (Vittal, Dakshina Kannada). Have never seen them since the teacher training course over 47-years ago. Unlike these days, we didn't have phone or internet to remain in touch," she adds.

Besides fuel, Krishna says there is no major expense incurred on them, although for close to 10 months now a little over a lakh has been spent on the journey. “We are never at a hurry, depending on our interest we move from one place to another, therefore we cannot exactly say how much time we will take to complete our journey and destination,” he says. All through the journey, Choodarathnamma says that they did not stay in a hotel and usually consumed fruits and prepared curry out of vegetables that were made available to them. "We stay at mutts or temples, sometimes locals invite us at their residences. We consume food from the temples and even take water for consumption. By God’s grace, I never had health issues and we never fell ill during the journey," she adds.

On being asked, why they preferred scooter, Krishna says that it was his father who gifted him the scooter in 2001. "I am very emotionally attached to this Bajaj Chetak. I feel that my father is along with me and I am only like a charioteer taking both my parents for the place of their liking," he says.

Comments

MOHAMMED SHARIEF
 - 
Sunday, 25 Nov 2018

Really, its a pricless bound 

SD
 - 
Saturday, 24 Nov 2018

Wow! One lucky mom...

God bless the young man

Joseph Stalin
 - 
Saturday, 24 Nov 2018

Inspiring. Lovely don and mother

Reshma kodialbail
 - 
Saturday, 24 Nov 2018

Such a nice son. His wife is the luckiest wife. One who care his mother will care his wife also. He will respect women

Subbu Acharya
 - 
Saturday, 24 Nov 2018

man.. You did great. Always care your mother. make her happy. God bless you

Vinod
 - 
Saturday, 24 Nov 2018

Wow.. great.. son should be like this. 

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News Network
January 27,2020

Bagalkote, Jan 27: The bank of Krishna River in front of Sangamantha Temple at Koodalasangama in Karnataka today witnessed the launch of women’s indefinite strike demanding liquor ban in the state.

Thousands of women from various parts of Karnataka have taken part in the strike being organised under the banner of 'Karnataka Madya Nisheda Andolana'.

The strike was launched to draw the attention of the state government to press for a complete ban on the sale of liquor across the state.

About 50 various organizations and religious pontiffs have extended their support for the strike. Food is being cooked on the bank of the river for the agitating women.

The women from Chikmagalur, Tumakuru, Raichur and Ballari districts are taking part in it.

Comments

SK
 - 
Tuesday, 28 Jan 2020

Change the Heading........

 

 

The protest is for Liquor ban and not against .......  Please edit the articles before posting

FAIRMAN
 - 
Monday, 27 Jan 2020

Thanks to God,

At least now, people wokeup., which should have been done immediattely after independence or during implementation of constitution.

 

Shame to men who drink more.

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News Network
February 16,2020

Mangaluru, Feb 16: An elderly woman from Tamil Nadu was on Saturday reunited with her daughter and son after 14 years at the Mangaluru's White Doves destitute home.

"Mary only knew her name when she came here 10 years ago. Recently, she told us about her home town," Corrine Rusquinha, founder of White Doves told media.
Mary had gone missing 14 years ago from her hometown Kortampet in Tamil Nadu.

"Ten years ago, she was spotted by Mangaluru police who brought her to White Doves home late one evening. Initially, she could only speak Tamil, so it was presumed she was from Tamil Nadu. She was on psychiatric treatment," Rusquinha said.

A few days back, a visiting priest at the White Doves home spoke to Mary in Tamil and asked about her hometown.

"Surprisingly, she could recall the name of her hometown, following which the visiting priest contacted the pastor at Kortampet. Mary's family, including her daughter Gnana Anthony, who is a paramedic student in Coimbatore, was informed about Mary," she said.

Soon after, Gnana and her elder brother came to Mangaluru to take their mother back to their home.

Mary's husband Jhonson, who worked as a cook, had died within a year of losing his wife.

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News Network
February 26,2020

Mumbai, Feb 26: Targetting Shiv Sena's silence over the recent controversial remark by AIMIM leader Waris Pathan, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said the Uddhav Thackeray-led party might be "wearing bangles" but the BJP was not and knew how to retaliate in the same manner.

"Shiv Sena might be wearing bangles but we are not. If someone says something then he will be given an answer in the same way. BJP has this much power," said Fadnavis while launching a scathing attack on ruling-Shiv Sena in Maharashtra for not taking strict action against Pathan.

Fadnavis was addressing protestors at Azad Maidan where BJP launched a protest against Maharashtra government over issues related to farmers and women.

On February 20, while addressing an anti-CAA rally, at Kalaburagi in Karnataka, Pathan had said, "time has now come for us to unite and achieve freedom. Remember we are 15 crore but can dominate over 100 crores."

"They tell us that we have kept our women in the front - only the lionesses have come out and you are already sweating. You can understand what would happen if all of us come together," he had said.

Facing flak over his remarks Pathan later took back his words and had said he had not targeted any community but had spoken against members of some organisations.

"If any of my words have hurt someone, I take them back as I am a true Indian," Pathan said at a press conference here.

The AIMIM leader said that he was being portrayed as being anti-Indian and anti-Hindu for the past couple of days.

"I want to say that my earlier statement was basically against people who are members of organisations like RSS, BJP, Bajrang Dal, etc. These 100 are those people who want to divide this beautiful nation," he added.

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