The Love called Mom..

The popular saying goes that God could not love us all at the same time so He created mothers.  God was indeed smart – not only did He ensure more love for children, He also ensured less work for Himself.

Noone really cares or realizes what a great responsibility being a mother is – until they themselves become a parent.  As a child, I saw my mom manage three of us brothers and my dad – preparing breakfast, preparing and packing our lunches in our respective boxes, making sure we all got our morning coffees, collected jasmine flowers and prepared garlands and got the altar ready for my dad to do his prayers…all by 8 AM.

After we all left to our schools and my dad left for work, my mom washed clothes, washed vessels, cleaned up the house and hold your breath – manually drew water from a well that was 100 feet deep –this was water required for a family of 5 – bathing, washing, cleaning – because we did not have taps at home. She then attended to my dad when he came home for lunch. After my dad left, she set out to buy groceries and vegetables for the next day – we did not have a refrigerator at home, so can t have anything perishable for more than a day.  She had to walk for half hour to reach the market, negotiate the best price, get everything required for the next day. Amidst all of these, she built a network that she could draw on for help and in turn provided help, wrote letters to her brothers, helped us all with our studies and prepared dinner.

God couldn t have packed so much in one day. For all these, my mom got very little appreciation or rewards or bonus or vacation.  Her love for her family and her wish for her children to have the best possible future kept her going.

I was not wise enough to experience what it took to be my mom.

I doubt if I would have ever become wise enough to understand them all if I had not become a parent myself. For the last four months, Saritha has been taking care of Mithilesh s every need – that means so many feedings, cleanings, crying – day in an day out and she is humble enough to say the journey has just began and it is a long, unknown, packed journey ahead. Saritha s life changed forever the day Mithilesh was born and she is always busy, but yet manages to shower the same amount of affection on her beloved ones.

What makes moms tick ? What makes them strong enough to move mountains for their kids ? ‘ That is love’ comes the oversimplified explanation – It cannot be as simple as that. The answer I could settle for is that we probably will never succeed in the attempt to understand. It is like trying to describe how a sweet tastes – you can write pages and pages, but unless it is experienced, it can never be complete. Mom s love has no descriptions - It can only be experienced.

Coming back to where I started, I m glad God did not take up this job Himself – I doubt if there could have been so much perseverance, patience, love and vision – I say that because God is addressed in a masculine gender and I know what men can and cannot do.