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Let the world see the times we're living in, says this scorned mom

Jaya Deshprabhu, 93, feels age is not on her side to fight a legal battle and takes to penning a book on her tormentor MLA son

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The book by 93-year-old matriarch and owner of Deshprabhu House or Visconde de Pernem, Goa's grandest Hindu mansion, Mee Aai Boltay, about the alleged harassment by her sons pulls no punches. It has led to waves of shock not only in the coastal state of Goa but across the closely knit community in Mumbai too - not only because of the stridency of the harassment, but also because it is directed by the sons against their own ageing mother.

Jaya Deshprabhu had said that she feared for her life after her son threatened her with dire consequences in order "to grab the family property". "I had to get out of that house and come back to Mumbai. How could I continue to live a life hounded by my MLA son Jeetendra's barbs and insults. He kept pushing me around saying I belong to a family of beggars and don't own anything. Often this screaming and shouting go on even when I sat down to have my meals," she says and asks, "Do you understand what that means? I was a state-level table tennis champion when in college in 1945. I was married into a family where the forefathers carried titles like Vicount and Rao Raje. In that house my mother-in-law unfailiingly bedecked me in gold and silks and even got a crown and a heavy golden peacock broach studded with emeralds for me. Today in my 90s to have to flee like this to save myself from my own son really hurts."

She points out how both her sons are arrogant and cruel but her younger son Jeetendra is particularly abrasive. "When he loses his temper, he would abuse me in such foul language that I would tremble in fear and anger. He often threatened to kill me if I didn't sign property papers he placed beofre me. He'd brook no questions and began shouting if I dilly-dallied," she says and adds, "My late husband Raghuraj too died heartbroken following harrassment and suffering at the hands of our sons in his advanced age. They tried everything possible to shut me up too and felt the fear of embarassment will keep me quiet. But I've decided that at my age, I have nothing to lose. This fight is not about my jewellery, the family silver or the property but about self-respect and dignity."

In fact, the description of the sons' behaviour towards the mother is so disturbing that author Gita Parulekar who helped write the book says, "I've never seen such cruelty for a mother from her sons even in TV serials. I found much of what she felt so heartrending that I tried to soften the language and make it milder. But when Jayatai read the first draft she was furious and asked me not to soften what she was saying. Let the world see the times we're living in."

While Devendra remained inaccessible when dna contacted, Jeetendra said, "This is all baseless. My mother's gone senile and my sisters and their husbands are instigating her to grab property." Incidentally, both Deshprabhu's daughters Rani and Devi are married off in really well-to-do Mumbai families and was claimed to have often asked the mother to end this rift and settle down with them.

"That's a lie he likes to spread," hits back the old matriarch who not only speaks clearly in a ringing sweet voice but is also an avid bridge player. "How could I be senile and play bridge with such finesse?" she asks.

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