PHILLAUR, May 26—Jarnail Singh kept tossing in the bed till about 9.00 a.m. when it was time for the village post-office to open. With the help of his stick he dragged himself out of the cot and staggered down the concrete village streets towards the post office.

His UK-settled son had not rung up for the last so many days. "Oh, these telephone lines, God help them work," he muttered. "But may be the post had arrived ", he hoped.

At the post office Jarnail Singh met a number of other old people who like him converge almost daily at the post office in hope of some "sandesh" from their sons and daughters.

The letters had come. Happily and hurriedly they go through the matter and later gather in the village 'sath' to boast about the new feats of their progeny in foreign land far away from them. The bragging, however, ends within minutes and silence engulfs the elders. With their children living across the seven seas, they don't need words to share their loneliness.

Such silence of the graveyard prevails in scores of villages in this subdivision, 20 km from Ludhiana, as almost the entire young population has settled abroad scripting NRI success stories.

Pale-looking old people, locked gates , desolate mansions and lifeless streets is what the youths have left behind. "Aithon de sare bande bahar chale gaye hun. Sirf bazurg te khali makaan reh gaye hun" (all youth have gone abroad, only old people have been left behind) revealed Mr Pyare Ram, Head Post Master, Dayalpura village, when this correspondent inquired about the lonely streets.

It actually looked as if some epidemic had swallowed the whole village population when The Tribune reached the village. The scene was same in surrounding villages of Mandi Rampuriyan, Dhak Mazaaran, Sultanpur, Silkiyana and Raipurayian.

Tastefully constructed mansions of the NRIs wore a deserted look. The huge colourful gates appeared locked for many months and wild shrubs and plants had grown in front of these. The huge bungalows bore big nameplates of the male members of the family announcing their property rights. The mansions did not even have numbers. Instead Gill Canadawale or Americawale and even UK White House Villa identified the bungalows.

In the absence of the humans the mansions are inhabited by scores of peacocks who seemed terrified at the approach of the Tribune team.

Harpal Singh an elder villager informed: "The peacocks have become a permanent residents of these majestic places as humans are rarely seen here. The small population of weak, old people is harmless to these birds who even roam freely on the streets."

"The other inhabitants are costly cars" he continued . "The NRIs come after a few years , do some construction, lock new cars in the garages and fly back to England, the USA, Germany, Australia and Canada.", said Harpal.

The trend began way back in 1954 when his chacha Ajit Singh went to the UK. When he returned after 10 years, the villagers, especially youths were awe-struck at his wealth, clothes and high standard of living.

Soon Sheetal, Gurbachan and Joga Singh followed suit and now several generations are settled outside.

Sucha Singh, a village elder, said the NRIs are living like kings outside. Some owned petrol stations, others restaurants and even aeroplanes. One of them comes after a few years in his won helicopter and people of surrounding villages flock in large numbers to behold him. He said no doubt the elders were sad but they content themselves with the good state of life of their children. An engineering degree holder youth said his papers had arrived and he would be leaving for the USA in a few months. "After all where do you find jobs in this country ?', he asks.

Gurpreet Singh Gill, an NRI settled in Germany, had just arrived in the village with his new BMW car. Talking to The Tribune he said he had gone to Germany in 1972 and then after a hard struggle managed to run a successful chain of restaurants. Now his sons are also settled there and they come occasionally to their motherland for spending few weeks in winters.

“We have invested so much in the mansions because we wish to spend comfortable holidays in India,” he explained the reason of constructing such large houses, adding that this was also a mean to show our immense wealth in the alien land.

Mr Gill said all the village elders had been abroad at one time or the another and their children still call them. But the elders have somehow been not able to adjust in the foreign countries due to different lifestyle.

According to him if the Indian Government did not wake up to the disturbing trend of this exodus of villagers to greener pastures in other countries, a time will come when more villages would wear such deserted look.