<p>A few scientists doing an experiment offered a boy a handsome sum of money if he would allow himself to be let down by a rope over a cliff in a precipitous mountain gorge. The boy longed for the money, for he was poor, but when he looked down into the two-hundred-foot chasm, he said, “No.” After further persuasion he said, “I will go if my father holds the rope.” That is “faith”. He had confidence in his father; he believed in his father, and by an act of the will, he allowed his father to fasten the rope around him and let him down and earned the money. </p>.<p>Yes, that is the faith children usually have in their parents — but will children take care with the same faith when parents need them in life situations? Yes... Such exemplary children do exist.</p>.<p>In a world where love is often praised but rarely proven, I read about one son who showed what true love for parents really means — when his father’s health rapidly declined and doctors declared that only a liver transplant could save him, the young man, without any fear or doubt, stepped forward and offered 65% of his liver, placing his father’s life above his own. </p>.<p>The medical procedure was an act of pure, unconditional love. This son has proved that the bonds of love, trust and faith between parents and children are the most powerful and natural attributes. But the other side are those ingrates, the children who believe they are just entitled to enjoy the property but care nothing for parents and neglect them. Shame on them! </p>.<p class="bodytext">A woman who endures the pain of childbirth, which it is said is equivalent to breaking 20 bones, is the mother – and a man who tries to smoothen the roughness of the road his children tread is the father! Only those children who realise their value will not break their hearts by behaving heartlessly and senselessly. </p>.<p class="bodytext">There is an obligation of children to look after and maintain their parents as an unconditional statutory duty under the “Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007”, and it is not dependent on whether the child is in possession of, or will inherit, the parent’s property. The Court observed that abandonment or neglect of an elderly parent is a punishable act. </p>
<p>A few scientists doing an experiment offered a boy a handsome sum of money if he would allow himself to be let down by a rope over a cliff in a precipitous mountain gorge. The boy longed for the money, for he was poor, but when he looked down into the two-hundred-foot chasm, he said, “No.” After further persuasion he said, “I will go if my father holds the rope.” That is “faith”. He had confidence in his father; he believed in his father, and by an act of the will, he allowed his father to fasten the rope around him and let him down and earned the money. </p>.<p>Yes, that is the faith children usually have in their parents — but will children take care with the same faith when parents need them in life situations? Yes... Such exemplary children do exist.</p>.<p>In a world where love is often praised but rarely proven, I read about one son who showed what true love for parents really means — when his father’s health rapidly declined and doctors declared that only a liver transplant could save him, the young man, without any fear or doubt, stepped forward and offered 65% of his liver, placing his father’s life above his own. </p>.<p>The medical procedure was an act of pure, unconditional love. This son has proved that the bonds of love, trust and faith between parents and children are the most powerful and natural attributes. But the other side are those ingrates, the children who believe they are just entitled to enjoy the property but care nothing for parents and neglect them. Shame on them! </p>.<p class="bodytext">A woman who endures the pain of childbirth, which it is said is equivalent to breaking 20 bones, is the mother – and a man who tries to smoothen the roughness of the road his children tread is the father! Only those children who realise their value will not break their hearts by behaving heartlessly and senselessly. </p>.<p class="bodytext">There is an obligation of children to look after and maintain their parents as an unconditional statutory duty under the “Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007”, and it is not dependent on whether the child is in possession of, or will inherit, the parent’s property. The Court observed that abandonment or neglect of an elderly parent is a punishable act. </p>
