Mother: Missed Much

Why is it that I miss Aai much? For one thing, a mother's love, like the father's as well, is unconditional. One need not consciously acquire it, why, one need not even deserve it. Parents are the only people who love you as you are, even when they know you through and through. So instinctual is this bond that everybody loves his/her mother/father.

I think though that I liked Aai beyond this visceral, elemental feel. I appreciated her as a person as well. She had a very interesting personality. The thing I most liked about her is that she never held grudges. Nothing used to rankle her eternally. This does not mean that she did not understand others' bad behaiour or nasty comments. It is just that she knew how to let go. As a result, she would never indulge in gossip, neither in the family circle nor in the neighbour hood. I have never seen her sitting around in lazy afternoons with the `girly gang' to chitchat about others. She would rather stitch clothes, prepare a unique dish instead.

Yet another quality I truly liked was that she could laugh at herself. The first time she prepared chocolates at home, they were rather hard. Pandit Mama used to mercileesly tease her about it. Very loyally I used to defend her, but she just used to laugh it off.  

  In fact, a feisty lady, she had a lovely sense of humour. Her naughtiness was without malice though. Basically, it added to her zest for life. That she had in abundance. Hence she most zealously completed courses that dealt with the writings of Sant Ramdas, Sant Dnyaneswar, and Sant Tukaram.  She actually read the refernce books I got her from the S.P.College library. She genuinely tried to understand their vision of life. She so excelled in the studies that she was a rank holder. Not only did she assiduously help her classmate complete it, she later worked as a trainer, as an examiner on the Sant Ramdas course. This was in her sixties.

She was very systematic and neat about evrything. No distraction could drag her from her focus. No wonder, she would not binge-watch the T.V. serials eternally. She loved instead  multiple other activities such as solving crossword puzzles, reading, improving on her singing and drawing, and so on. Long would be a list of the hobbies and interests of this generous and romantic soul who believed in a very positive way about the best that is yet to come. And so she is a mother missed much.

On her second mensual death anniversary, let me complete this tribute to her with an `altered-to-suit-my meaning' quote from an anonymous author:

" Don't cry for me now I have died

   for I'm still here, I'm by your side,

   My body's gone, but my sririt is here,

 please don't shed another tear...

I'm in the sunrays gifting you the day

I'm in the taste that makes your food tray

I'm your laughter, I'm your pain

In your thoughts I shalt forever remain 

Whilst there I can never be gone

Don't cry for me, don't be forlorn."

pratima@in memoriam