KUALA LUMPUR: A recent viral video which showed a 72-year-old grandmother who had not eaten for a while in Kota Tinggi, Johor has saddened actor Sharnaaz Ahmad.
Shocked by her plight, and troubled by thoughts that her children might have neglected her, Sharnaaz has called on his fans to always care for their mothers.
"We may have lovely girlfriends and beautiful wives, but please remember that our mothers are our first loves. 'Cilaka' are those who mistreat their mothers, and they will never smell the fragrance of heaven," he said in an Instagram post last Friday.
"We are very lucky to be able to have scrumptious dinners, worth RM20,000 to RM30,000 but at the end of the day, we all enter the same graves, and are buried by the same earth."
Sharnaaz added that his reminder was also aimed at himself. "As long as our mothers are with us, we must love and care for them. No love can replace theirs, and I call on my son Jebat Jayden to love his mother always."
The 34-year-old actor's Instagram post was accompanied by a video of the grandmother enjoying a meal at a coffee shop.
The video was uploaded by Ahmad Afthdal Khairuddin, 25, who found the grandmother at Jalan Lukut Cina while making his way to a bank in the town centre.
She was walking alone with the aid of a walking stick, and told him that she had not eaten for sometime.
Afthdal, who took her for a meal, subsequently contacted her two children and they explained what had actually happened.
As it turned out, they had regularly sent her money and paid her rent, but she did not want to move into their houses and preferred to stay in her rented home in Taman Aman.
When he took her home, her immediate neighbour revealed that she had often walked to the nearby shops despite being infirm.