THE SURVIVORS

Insurance companies are often blamed for showing the fine print and finding reasons not to pay claims but sometimes it is they who wish to pay but don’t know who to pay and how to pay. Two short stories from our world, names changed for obvious reasons.

HABEAS CORPUS

They were the quietest couple. Living next door to the Srinivasan’s was very different and at times difficult. It wasn’t always like this. Since the last two years the silence was almost all pervasive and the front door shut was a frozen frame. All you could hear early morning was the Gayatri Mantra being chanted, the puja bells ringing softly with the aroma of incense sticks seeping softly out .In the evening  it was usually MS Subbalakshmi’s bhajans playing on the record player. The milkman would drop the milk packets every morning at the door step, the flower man came slightly before  and hung the plastic packet in the grill on the door, then came the fruitwala and the the subziwala. They had even stopped the newspaper and done away with the cable connection.

Veenu Uncle and Lata Aunty were hardly seen outside their home but for those one off visit to Dr. Anitha’s Clinic nearby. We would wait for those days just to get a glimpse of them. I tried at times to stand near the staircase to talk to them but all I could manage was an occasional smile and they would simply walk by as if no one was around. Having lived my childhood in a government colony where you had neighbours coming in asking for sugar, as they had guests in their house, and angry mothers walking across to the brute’s house to complain to his mother how badly he had beaten up her little Sonu. This indeed was different….never knew silence can be so deafening.

In all these two years, I had heard Uncle Veenu shout twice…just twice. Both the times the lines were the same….once to the police and second time it was with someone who had come from an insurance company.  The shouting was so loud and full throated that I had rushed out of my house to make sure all was fine with the couple.

“Stop lying to us. Leave us in peace. Do you have any proof? Show me if you have any. Why do you people keep troubling us? Next time you come, I will thrash you, lying scoundrels. Show me the proof or else get out. Never come back here.”

Uncle Veenu would shove the men towards the staircase. The visitors never protested and meekly backed away. As soon as they went out of sight, the door went…Bang! Shut again till no one knew when.

Two years ago, Shankar, the only son of their couple had gone out to Kanyakumari for a picnic with his colleagues from his company. Shankar was a bright boy and people told me about him having scored well in all his board exams and how he got recruited from the engineering campus by a large IT company. Shankar, along with his two friends, had been walking on the beach with water till their knees when suddenly a huge wave struck. Two friends were rescued by the lifeguards nearby but Shankar could not be found. They searched for him everywhere but couldn’t find his body. He was declared dead. The police closed their file after some time.

More often than not it is the insurance company who asks for documents and proof before settling claims but here was a strange case where the beneficiary was asking for proof to convince him that the insured man was no more.

Dead End

On 8th March 2014, Malyasian Airlines MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for Beijing, China.  Among the 227 passengers were the middle aged couple of Mr. and Mrs Kamble from Mumbai who loved travelling but never had the means to do it till Mr. Kamble retired and they were off on a holiday to Singapore, Malaysia and China. Their son, Devendra, had helped them get their passports and planned the trip meticulously from hotels to stay, airport transfers and places to visit.

One hour into the flight, the aircraft deviated from its planned flight path and crossed Malay Peninsula and then left the range of the radars. A multinational search operation was launched all over the Indian Ocean from Gulf of Thailand to Andaman Islands and this was then extended to Australia on the other side. Every inch of the vast ocean was scanned by ships, submarines and choppers, every satellite picture was examined in this massive search but nothing was found anywhere…no wreckage, no body, no picture…simply nothing. After months of search, the Malaysian authorities declared that the aircraft had been lost and there were no survivors.

The insurance company got the list of all passengers on board and identified the ones insured by them…..one..two…three..four and five. Five travel insurance death claims in one go is otherwise a large outgo but for once the company went out of its way to process the claims based on factual information…no claim had been filed, no document given…just press releases and news confirmation was deemed enough. Files signed and cheques were prepared quickly after all this was tragedy beyond ordinary. Three beneficiaries informed and were given the claim cheques. But two cheques lay unclaimed with the insurers for they could not find Devendra, the lone son of Kamble’s. Letters were sent to the address given in the policy but they would get returned undelivered. Some good samaritans also went to the society where the Kambles lived to find out about Devendra who had vanished. It seemed like a dead end.

The police started a search for Devendra and finally after six months of search, they found him living with a friend of his in a chawl in Dharavi. Aah..the insurers gave a sigh of relief and issued fresh cheques and asked Devendra to come and collect the same after signing the discharge. They waited and waited but Devendra never came. They went to his friend’s house again but he had left by then and no one knows where. The cheques remain uncashed till date.

We often cry for people who die but forget how many more die living in their memory. We tell all that insurance is important as we ‘indemnify’ or make good the loss. It helps you get back in life but no money can compensate for those who are no more; those left behind don’t understand money. Losses as these can never be made good. Is this the real devaluation of the rupee?

SS