MOTHER

Once her son told "My mother is like my friend. I can freely share my feelings with her". She corrected, "To know her son, a mother need not be a friend. She has to be his mother and it is the toughest job. In our culture mother is like the universe. Expecting her to be just a friend is like insulting her." For him his mother is just mother and mother is every thing.

Even at his 25 years he calls her "Mother India" as these two words are precious for him. His mother always wanted him to love India and this patriotism could be inherited from her patriotic grand parents who participated in Indian Freedom Fight. She made his son to read works of Swami Vivekananda, Sri Arabindo etc at the age of 5. She wanted him to be a nationalist. But when he started thinking like the extremists to find the short cuts she warned him “I wanted my son to be a Citizen of the world. I taught you how to be a ‘Vishwa Maanav’. He became Hindu Nationalist and still he is, she accepted it.

After reading the books one after the other, histories inspired her son in his childhood. He wanted to conquer the world well before the age in which Alexander did. He liked ‘The Alexander’, and ‘The Ashoka’ . He wanted to achieve everything with the short cuts available to see smile on his mother’s face. She told him short cuts would end in miseries. What one wins should be sustained without making anyone sad.

Being a lower middleclass working lady during his childhood she taught him the importance of money. She did not give cash when he asked for. She gave him a cheque in his name when he was 12 years, he experienced how difficult is to encash it. She also taught him relationship is more valued than money. Once he asked her mother ‘what you want me to be when I grow up?’ She knew he has big dreams and his dreams will be constantly upgraded and changed at times, he needed an ultimate goal. She told him ‘I don’t ask you to be an engineer or a doctor or a businessman. Be a good citizen of this country. I can’t tolerate if people blame me for being mother of a criminal/corrupt/cheat’ Being good citizen is now on the top of his goals.

She dedicated her entire life for her son. She stopped watching her favorite serials when he was in 10th and +2. Her TV timings were restricted to half an hour a day that too for the national news. She stayed in small village where she spent more than 30 years, that too in a poor infrastructured house. She waited for years to build an own house until her son gets a job, which satisfies him and gives opportunities to achieve his goals.

They even fight every now and then the reasons are so stupid for those who listen to it. One of a such recent fight was about the corruption and black money. She argued as problem is increasing. He countered as it is getting solved. People who interfered between them went mad.

On the eve of my mother’s 60th birthday I can’t stop myself writing this. "Happy birthday Amma".