mother is god's angel

Mother is God’s Angel

(Published on 2^nd Jan 2010 in The Hitavada Middle Space)

By Jyoti Patil

When in one of the conferences I happened to invite Prantik Banerjee as resource person, he came up with this new genre in fiction, Chick -lit, as he is always known as a person of futuristic ideas who has left Shakespeare and his old tribe far behind and has recently pondered on IITIANS and IIMS who are giving a new dimension to Indian English writings. I think he is the person who is seriously thinking to liberate literature from the clutches of traditional fanatics. Chick Lit is a term used to designate genre fiction within women’s fiction written mostly by women writers for young women especially single, working women in their twenties and thirties.

Having been so amused with this new nomenclature ‘Chick- Lit’, I started hunting for something more amusing and enchanting terms. I happened to visit a book shop one day; there I found a series of Chicken Soup books. My first impression was that it must be something about cooking some delectable dishes. But after browsing some pages I found them very interesting with real life stories elaborating the points mentioned in those books. The book I chose was ‘Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul’.

The tender deep attunement between mother and child is so intimately and finely painted through the pages with passionate stories of real life that one can only see the pure and serene love of mother for her children without any selfish motives but quite often that love is misunderstood by the children and they distant themselves away from such affection and fall into trap of superficial attractions. Later they realize their fault but some times it is too late to repent. It is replete with such heartwarming stories which move and charge you to ponder deep over such cozy relationships that occur day in and day out around us but we don’t have time to feel and enjoy such intimacy.

It reminded me of a story narrated to me when I was a kid. That story has rooted deep down in my heart that I still remember it with wet eyes. There was a young boy who was deeply in love with a beautiful. The girl made him to dance to her tunes. One day it was raining very heavily but he had promised the girl to come. His mother tried to stop him fearing the bad weather. The boy was adamant. He kicked his dinner plate and went to meet his lady love. The girl that day wanted to test his love for her. She asked him to bring his mother’s heart if he loved her so deep. The boy agreed and went back to bring his mother’s heart. The hungry mother was still waiting for her son for dinner. The son didn’t pay any heed to her repeated requests to eat and murdered her to remove her heart. When he was going back to his lady love he stumbled on the way and the mother’s heart dropped off. There came a voice from the heart ‘my dear son, are you hurt? Be careful.’ He still didn’t pay any attention to her pleadings and reached to the girl who was aghast to see him holding his mother’s heart. She immediately turned down his pleadings for love and only said the person who can murder his mother for an unknown girl can easily murder her for someone else. Of course I don’t know how far the story is true but it gives us a point to ponder that we always try to catch ‘nine in the bushes’ by ignoring ‘one in hand’. It is rightly said that God can be with every good person to wipe his tears so He created the mother as his angel on earth. But it is not only the mother who gives a chance to smile but quite often it is the small cherubs (little Children) who give heart’s contentment and a moment to smile.

One of the fun rolled stories runs like this, One day a daughter got late from school and the mother got annoyed. The daughter gave an explanation that her friend’s doll was broken on the way. The mother asked if she helped her friend picking up the broken pieces. She innocently answered that she didn’t do any of the sort but stayed to give her company in crying. What a nice excuse the little daughter gave which only made the mother to embrace her with love. Another special moment was in poetic lines –

‘My child took a crayon, in her little hand, and started to draw, as if by command.

I looked on with pleasure, but couldn’t foresee, what the few simple lines, were going to be.

What are you drawing? I asked, by and by. I’m making a picture, of God in the sky.

But nobody knows, what God looks like, I sighed. They will when I’m finished she calmly replied.’

You can only see with amused eyes and think of the purity of idea.

The mother is the first to hold her children, and then holds them accountable for their actions. She teaches her children to walk, then watches them walk down the aisle. She shields her children from nightmares, and then encourages them to chase their dreams. It is really heavenly.

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