Mothers have always been an enigma when it comes to emotions. Their impulsiveness can drive you crazy at times.
To me as a daughter, my mother was no exception. She would be at her benign best at times to the most random and sternest to close ones including me. However, this doesn’t affect my fondness for her the least bit; she is my mother and the closest and the boldest friend I ever had since my childhood after my dad passed away.
Recently she proved her mettle by daring to do what even many men would have hesitated to do or would not have had the enterprise for. It was an incident that increased manifold my awe for her. It would make any daughter proud of her mother.
Little did my mother, an employee at a nationalised bank in a city in Karnataka, know what the day had in store for her when she visited a local department store. She was greeted at the entry point by a woman, along with a lean and wimpy man who appeared to be her colleague. The woman relieved her of the handbag she was carrying for a customary check before she could start her shopping. It had to be stored in the luggage docks at the entry. There was something about her, my mother felt. Nevertheless she had a more important task at hand so she moved on to it.
Picking up all the needed stuff she headed towards the billing counter, only to realise her wallet was left behind in the handbag she had left at the entry. Exasperated, she went there and asked for her bag, opened and searched it. To her dismay the wallet and her cell phone were both missing. On enquiring with the security guard she came to know that the woman who had collected her bag had left minutes after my mother had entered.
The pursuit of her stolen belongings was now a prime concern for her. The store security guard told my mother the suspect had hailed an autorickshaw outside the shop. Followed and aided by the guard, she promptly identified the driver of the autorickshaw that the woman had boarded, parked nearby.
The driver took her to where the thief had got down. When she asked him to join her in the search, he was reluctant to do so. “You are not getting your money unless you help me!” my mother told him, as she didn’t have any money left with her, the wallet having been stolen. The helpless the driver then joined the chase.
A few minutes of searching around led my mother to the same lean, wimpy colleague of the suspect, who was standing with a friend of hers, probably chalking out the next move. She approached the woman and in a commanding voice, with the swagger of a woman police officer that she naturally possesses, and shouted, “Did you flick my belongings back at the shop? Give it back or else be ready to face the consequences.”
“I don’t have it. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” replied the accomplice. A few more warnings later, duly intimidated, she gave in and confessed to their having flicked the wallet and cell phone at the shop and scooting.
Noticing a crowd building up and keen to avoid further embarrassment, the suspect’s friend led my mother and her entourage to the real culprit who was close by. The culprit was thrown completely off-guard noticing my mother approaching with her small army. Without any way out the culprit confessed to having thrown away the wallet after taking the money that was inside, and switching off the phone.
Soon enough, the wallet, almost all the money and the cell phone were recovered. The people around applauded my mother, and she let both the guilty persons to leave. After paying the auto-driver and thanking him for his help, my mother returned home. She called me up and narrated the entire episode.
Both of us have since spread the message to our part of the world on how a determined woman can single handedly cope with all odds.
shreya231191@gmail.com
