The HC had dismissed a plea filed by an elderly couple seeking maintenance from their daughter-in-law after the death of their son. The romanticised notion of the noble elderly, frail and bereft, is touching, indeed; while the callous adult children, out for themselves, is a cultural trope. Threatening people into caring paints a sorry picture of the reality of family dynamics in India. Alas, just like you can’t hurry (romantic) love, neither can you enforce (filial) duty; this is no solution to save the forsaken. Besides, a mandatory diktat to honour thy parents’ disregards the data that everyone doesn’t experience their mothers as nurturing, or grow up believing that parental affection is unconditional.

Source: Indian Express April 05, 2026 03:10 UTC