The government has just passed a bill which will punish people who neglect thier elderly parents. Is it possible to make people more caring by threatening them with three months in jail and a fine of Rs 5000. Would it be possible to make politicians honest by passing a bill threatening them with jail? I think not. One old man, about eighty five years old, lived around here. He had prostate cancer and had to take frequent injections for relief of pain. He lived with his old wife and one son who was a drinker. Another son lives in Delhi while a third lives in the US. The drinker son developed cirrhosis of the liver and huge ascites which is water in the abdomen. He was gradually going downhill and last month was admitted to hospital in a moribund condition. The old man was so upset at the prospect of losing a son that he had a heart attack and died on Diwali day. The son died a few days after him leaving behind a wife a a four year old child. Now the two surviving sons came over from Delhi and the US. The first thing they did was to put their mother, who had just lost her husband and a son, in and ashram in about 200 km away and then started abusing their sister in law to make her leave the house so that they could sell the house and divide the money. I find it hard to understand how anyone can be so cruel and devoid of any sympathy even for his mother. The other question that comes to mind is why all three sons were such monsters. Is it because the old man and his wife treated their own parents badly and the boys grew up thinking that this was the correct thing to do. We are moved by the plight of the old and the infirm but have no way of knowing if they had been good parents in their younger days. If children grow up to hate their parents no amount of laws can make them care. Animals instinctively care for their young but most humans make lousy parents.