Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Maya Banerjee

We have always been at loggerheads. It started about 20 years back and since then it has become progressively worse. Now, however, we have achieved near total perfection in communication. She does not understand a single word I say and I refuse to accept what she says.

Yet, for some quite inexplicable reasons, I cannot help but admire her. I cannot help but be thankful to her for what she has done for me all of these years. To construe it as a discharge of responsibility would be to trivialize the intent, effort and an almost uncompromising love.

If, at times, it appeared to be too harsh, it appeared to push me more than what was required, those chidings which appeared to be unsubstantiated and unnecessary, it was just to instill in me the spirit to stand and fight, not to lose till I have lost and to be humble in victory, possibly to teach me that what might win you the day might be responsible for losing you another.

That courage is not just in muscles and more to do with a heart, that being honest is tough yet advisable, that being a good human being meant much more than accumulated material achievements were consciously and subconsciously drilled more through actions, and much less through dictums. I distinctly remember, my friend and I, 10 years old, playing one evening and being the object of quite a brutal verbal assault from a security guard at our locality. Defenseless, we hardly had the ammunition to hit back. She happened to pass by at that moment and stopped by to confront the inebrieted guard. It did not matter that he was physically more intimidating and it did not matter as well that, in the event of an unsavoury incident, she would also be quite defenseless.
What mattered was, she did what she had to and ten years later those two children understood what it was all about.

If not for anything, I have to salute her incredible strength of mind. It takes a lot of courage to tell your offsprings that they are not exactly good looking. And to do it without sounding offensive, without hurting the most precious thing you have ever possessed is worthy of unparalleled praise. Remarkable.

To stand against practically all of who claim to be far more rational than her, maybe justifiably so, to pursue something with a zeal purely to extract the best for me and nothing but the best, inspite of my objections to her thoughts requires a motivation and affection which cannot be replicated.

There will be many and there are, who love me and would want me to be happy in life. But none as purely and as much, as the woman I call 'ma'.

As I look back on the woman, who brought me up, nurtured my thoughts, thought me to think and love and fight and keep fighting, I am filled with a sense of amazement and wonder that whom I thought to be quite 'ordinary', is actually, in reality, an exceptional person. Much more that what she gets credit for. Much more than I could ever be. Much more than I could ever ask off any other I would come to know.

8 comments:

Scribbler :) said...

We have all made the same mistake buddy i.e. to think that our mothers are 'ordinary'. True that they have not been among the first women to reach the moon...or the first woman CEO of a multinational....But they have stuck around with brats like us...It's easier going to the moon, I believe.

spiderman! said...

Scribbler:

I think so. I would never put up with anyone like me for this long.

P said...

I wish you could make her read this, but then, that would be the day! :)

spiderman! said...

Fortunata:

Yeah, right :)

IssacMJ said...

Lovely! Not just the post.But that sometimes we just ought to push the pause button in our lives, like you did thorugh this post and thank heavens for some gems that we have in our lives. :-)

spiderman! said...

Issac:

My problem is that I keep on pausing from time to time and then forget to push the 'play' button again. And hence, with each passing day I feel I am going back in time :(

The Ketchup Girl said...

brought back a million memories of ma and me. And also made me call her and say a quick thanks ma, I love you, out of the blue. That it seems, made her day, or so, baba tells me. So its my turn now to thank you :-). Stopped by for the first time...came thru the scribbler. Aweseome stuff!

spiderman! said...

Ketchup:

Thanks!

Well, I am yet to do what you did. And I doubt whether I will ever do that. If I were to do that, I am not sure how she would react. Definitely not the way I would expect her to.