For 86-year-old Parvathi, Vidyakar is not her son.
"He is my God. I know God has come in front of me in his image. I see God in him. That is why whenever I see him, I bow with folded hands, and he would say, 'What's this, Paatti (grandmother)? You are like my mother. I tell him, 'Son, you are my God.'"
With no money and no place to live despite having a daughter, Paatti went knocking on the doors of Udavum Karangal 12 years ago, and said, "You are the only person who can help me. You should take me as an inmate."
Vidyakar asked her smilingly, "What will you do if I say there is no place here?"
"I told him, then, I have only one place to go; the seashore. He smiled at my answer and then hugged me and said, 'You need not go to the seashore, you can stay here."
From that day on, she has been an inmate of Udavum Karangal.
Photograph: Paatti came knocking on the doors of Udavum Karangal 12 years ago
Also see: Republic Day Special