She cooks great food. She tolerates all the many different moods. She gives you a shoulder to cry. She brings you back to Earth when you threaten to fly. She is the one you turn to when you need a vent, when you say things you never really meant. She is Mother. Wikipedia defines a mother as “a woman who has conceived, given birth to and raised a child.” Is that all there is to her? No. A mother is a lot more than mere biology. She represents all that humanity is about — feelings and emotions like love, kindness, sacrifice and compassion that cannot be quantified. Lilly Lu hits bull's-eye with her definition — “The meaning of being a mother is to teach children how to love unconditionally and unselfishly.”
Epic roles
Every great epic, every mythological tale, every story of greatness since the beginning of time has celebrated the mother. Religion stands testimony to the likes of Virgin Mary or Syeda Mariam, the mother of Jesus Christ, and Krishna's mother Yashoda, who were instrumental in moulding their children's lives. From the likes of historic Maratha warrior Shivaji, whose mother Jijabai influenced his policies and character, to our modern day Foodking Sarath Babu whose mother sold idlis to fund her son's education, mothers have a special role to play. Closer to home, every one of us would have turned to our moms for a word of encouragement or a glance of understanding, when she is the only one who understands. Each one of us would agree with Lowell on what he describes as “that best academy, a mother's knee” being the one space that is always open to any child. It is here that we learn the greatest of lessons.
Arvind Mellam's mother has instilled in him the value never to cheat, Raoul George's mom made him a gentleman and Prethiv Siddarth says his driving force in life is his mom's mantra of “Whatever you do, you should be the best”, going to show that a mother's words of wisdom go a long way in providing direction to every child's life.
With the birth of first child came multi-tasking, playing roles like nurturer, caregiver, friend, guide and confidante amongst others. Ask Akshara Ramabadran what her mother is to her and she enthuses, “My mother is a really good friend. She knows everything about me because I tell her everything. She understands what we experience as teenagers today.”
Arjun Subramaniam is not far behind, “My mom is my teacher, friend and goddess. She knows me thoroughly and gladly partakes of my troubles and worries. If I ever feel guilty for pouring out my problems, she pooh-poohs the thought saying she is happy I trust her.”
All about love
With so much love in the air, how does one express it? Are words of kindness and acts of love all that it takes to speak the thoughts of the heart? What would be the perfect gift on Mother's Day? Though Arundhati RK votes for “A big, big, hug!” most children would agree that there is no gift to replace the one every mother has given her child — that of life. A hug is as close as it gets. Though the dates are different across the world and the reasons are varied, from honouring mothers to an effort to raise birth rates in Germany, the importance of mothers has been accepted and acknowledged universally.
Australia-returned Prarthana Venunathan opines, “Outside India, we made cards and gifts in schools. The concept of Mother's Day is new to India so it isn't as big a deal.” Commercialisation seems to be the catch-phrase with new-age festivals like Mother's Day but as Lilly Lu is quick to point out, “Mother's Day is kept alive in the heart, not in the hands of businesses.” Laksha Parameswaran supports her case, “Love is just love. Expression is immaterial.”
Contrary to the popular adage, whether it is the child or the mother who is out of sight, the mother is never out of mind. Twins Aditi and Anahita Sriprasad say “When we leave for college, the one thing we will miss is the big smile on her face when she comes back home. She is always there to listen to us whenever we need her and the big hugs are an obvious add-on!” Irrespective of age, ethnicity and geographical boundaries, mothers are the indispensable backstage technicians in the play that is their children's lives. We may not be even close to perfect but mothers are the essential driving force if we children are to “go kiss the world!”
After all, it was these words from a mother that caused her son to become THE Subroto Bagchi, Vice-Chairman and Gardner of MindTree Consulting. On this Mother's Day 2010, three cheers to all those mothers, mothers-to-be and mothers-at-heart out there from all us children. We love you!
Yashasvini is a Std XI student of APL Global School.
