Ode to all mothers, one for Mothers day i.e. May 9 in India.
What do I remember of the best things I can, of my mother; everything may not be so rosy, but only thoughts that are all smooth as silk, can come to me at this juncture. The ages i spend in a boarding, i missed my mother more than anything, to eat even, though there was nothing much to eat, nothing you can spend time on, just to remind all that the Boarding school was run by a different type mothers though, to be exact, the nuns.
The value of mothers is so magnified maybe because of that stint in boarding school, from 4th standard to 10th age or exactly from 8th year of my life onwards to 15th year a sad period in my life i don’t want to remember now and shaped my handicapped character ( Cos i believe I have lots of shortcomings in my character mostly to do with love ). Talk about the moms at Boarding school they are called moms or sisters,I understand they needed that money badly and they may have practised frugrality on what came into the plate of ours. I love those mothers also, i am talking about the nuns, they’re mostly sweet, a few bad apples in any bunch you can see .
There were lot of orphans, lots of little girls too who got back into life after you could say it was almost gone, with me, they used to take care of them free, so i have only warm and kind hearted feelings to those sisters and moms who used to be there for me. Most are so dedicated to Christ and sacrifices their life for His services, i had no idea then about them like i have today or days after i came off that school. My most recent little research shows most of these moms are from Syrian catholic community, oh now that is a long story, may be for another day.
My mom was a nurse since the time i know and a very special one in that too, lot of people talk in reverence about her, and lots in terror about her in hospital as she was very strict and always honest. Doctors were no match for her when it came to in managing the ward. Probably she would have been killed in the present circumstances of the govt. Hospitals. My mom served most of her time in the notorious district of EkM, Mattancherry and Fortkochi. Where the kind existed that could send chills down your spine, like Ondakannan hamsa, minnal Varghese, aadu thoma,Electric Hamsa. Being thus my mom,too much to handle end result, I am an unatteneded brat, who never used to grow where I was planted, everytime I am missing for an hour I could hear her shrill voice piercing the bin of the crowd I am with, how do I hear this moms voice even when I am in the midst of all shouting and hungama i really had no idea.
We had a beautiful place, close to lot of open spaces and I used to go out playing marbles or Top or the stick game, games had no shortage locally, and it varied according to seasons, but it was always very loud, hot and sweaty and messy, the noise we made during the playtime was too loud., but still i could hear my moms shrill shout, I don’t know how, maybe if I missed a couple of calls and if I never turned back to home, mama turns up with fire in her eyes, a honest smile and a bear hug ends all the rile and i am in seventh heaven and I have inflicted pain on her sometimes when I in anger, broke open the forehead of a neighbour, my thereafter i never went for a fight, even if somebody hits me I try to walk away.
Now I see a lot of kids are being taught to hit back than to back off and use good brains to revenge, and best weapon she had given was forget and forgive, really, i didn’t become a saint, but i learned to love and be nice because of my mom. Has she hit me, i don’t remember, why if her looks could kill. I can spend hours watching mothers with children in their hands and all those involuntary action reactions she does with that child the inadvertent protection that she provides every second of the trip.
I always feel the warmth she used to give me when i was sleeping with her the ways I could huddle up, arms around her, so cushioned up that i was never sleep deprived, she was also a good sleeper, with a few snore that can never wake me up, oh that was long before i was 10. While for any outing i used to touch, keep her pace to hold her hand. The force she put on us to study or to do what you do the best was less, but in lot of way less stressfully. Never used to ask for help in any job, but i always used to like very much to blanco her poor torn white hospital shoes. more to add....
