A struggling mother’s dream drowns

There’s hardly anything more painful than watching a grief-stricken mother wailing over the death of the apple of her eye. But for this mother, it is tragedy striking twice in just eight years.
For C Sujatha, a worker in a tailoring unit, the death of her husband, CM Selvaraj, in 2004, due to cardiac arrest, marked the beginning of huge struggle.

But on Monday, a cruel blow was dealt to her. Her younger son, sixth semester engineering student CS Naveen Kumar, 21, drowned in Kottuchatta Water Falls in Kabbinale forest in Sakleshpur. That was a shock she never expected to experience in her life.

Sujatha’s neighbours at Boodhigere Cross near Hosakote, fearing the worst if she immediately learnt of her son’s death, cut the cables to her residence to prevent her from watching TV channels flashing news of his drowning. Newspaper supply, too, was stopped.

She had dreamt of seeing both her sons as fine engineers. But her dream is now shattered, although her elder son, CS Karthik, graduated as an IT engineer from MVJ Institute of Technology in Whitefield and works with a software company.

“When my husband died, we were deep in debt. He had a transportation business and had taken several loans. After his death, I took another loan for Karthik’s education,” says Sujatha. “The only thing that my children wanted was a good education, for which I left no stone unturned.”

Sujatha’s dream was close to being realised. Naveen turned out to be a student brighter than anyone had expected, scoring 95% in SSLC and 89.9% in PUC from St Joseph’s Arts & Science College, without joining any private tuitions. He got admission in BMS College of Engineering as a merit student, and won accolades from his teachers and fellow-students alike.

On passing PUC with flying colours, Sujatha, despite her dreams, faced a problem of financing Naveen’s engineering course. “My earnings then were just `50 per day. When I confided in him, he just asked me to pay the admission fees, and that he would take care of the rest as he was already receiving scholarship from his PUC. When he was in school, he once told me ‘Amma, you don’t have to prepare any lunch for me; I will have food under the mid-day meals scheme’,” she says, caressing a picture of her son.

Naveen distributed newspapers and milk every morning; and during vacations, helped his mother by packing ready garments. He worked as a cleaner in garment factories to finance his education. And he earned some money staging street plays.
“He (Naveen) never sat idle,” she mumbles. “I just wish he had sat idle just once…when he was on the banks of the lake which took his life! But he had to get into the water.”