Saturday 12 May 2018

Your Best Break-up Partner




“Are you having the almonds soaked in water daily morning?”
“What giddy again? Everybody around is falling sick. Just go for a checkup and make sure you don’t go alone.”
“Be careful while you cook something and for heaven’s sake always cross check while turning off the gas knob. Do you even know how to cook?”
“Don’t order too many times from outside. Walk down to the grocery store and purchase vegetables. You can manage to cook once in a while- save money.”
“You haven’t called Dad in two days. He is worried.”
“Have you blocked each one of us on Facebook because I don’t see any new posts no more?”

Say hello to these familiar sets of drumrolls your best partner in the world comes with- Mothers.
Oh, what a mess- you feel like breaking up all the time. And you do.
But unlike all other break-ups wherein you have sleeved up with shields of ego clashes, no understanding, dagger swooning damage to self-respect and dignity, and you are swearing on your mothers to never get back- this is always a shelter home. Moms.

Motherhood comes as a choice to some and naturally to some others- And no matter whenever that happens, their children become their first priority. My mother has an M.A. in Psychology and chose to not work so that both me and my sister could attain quality education while Dad had a transferable job and was shifted to the North-western India for 5 years. 
We see partners around us leaving everything to be with each other. Maa has loved Dad ever since the day they met, loved so much so that she still has the writing pad she wrote letters to him in, during the early days of their marriage. She lived away from her husband for her two kids for ten long years.

Our morning school or afternoon schedule, extra classes or weekend rehearsals- there wouldn’t ever be one single meal missed, the instructions won’t stop, the emotional blackmails of securing top three or no ice-creams was a constant. Science sometime fails before the “Mommy” logic. If one paper for the board exams went well, that entire meal which was prepared on that very day would be repeated for all the other papers with a wishful thinking that Parantha & Sarso wali Bhindi is a lucky charm. That, being the same woman who would often vocally proclaim that people are just following these useless religious gurus owing to their superstition and that would end the world.

My competition days used to be really rough because of my performance anxiety. All my assurance queries of “Maa, I am winning this right?” were met with “You just got the hard work in your hand. And the results do not really matter.” It would often annoy me thinking it actually didn’t really matter to her until some time back I was told she’s getting all the certificates framed to be decorated across our hallway and her bedroom.

They say Fathers have a better bond with daughters and Moms with their sons. We are two sisters and therefore, it is hard to tell. What I do know is she’s the only one who could fit in all brackets we create as children. Her every-one-hour phone call when you are away might appear imposing in the beginning but the first breath you take whenever you speak to her- and she knows you got a cold, or you are dull, or you’re cornered or just not liking the city or the new home. She gives you just the exact strength from miles away you need to ride and take on the world- probably she’s the only Godly creation with the capacity to do so for the obvious reasons of being all our origins.

Between the first crush in school to the best friend at work, Maa has always known beforehand which of your relationships are forever, and even more the ones which will crumble. We really are looking for that companionship everywhere around us and will never acknowledge that it has been with us all this while- and has started to erode because we never took care to cherish it. We have always got catalogues and prices around which all our equations evolve. Guess we forgot to assign a category for her since she never made it to the catalogue owing to her priceless worth!

Here’s a good news, she never minds. We have got the liberty to return to her at any point we want, in any manner we’d like- to take out Dad’s frustration on her because obviously you cannot counter speak before him, to tell her that you are least interested in marriage, to click a selfie with her for a Mother’s Day post, to break down before her for a failing marriage, to instruct her to not ask you too many questions. Oh isn’t she cool, she follows you, all so well?

The Facebook and Youtube short ads and movies have enough content to help us all get started- there’s nothing supremely difficult about paying heed to a tiny four letter word- T.I.M.E.
Therefore, if we are done planning for a Mother’s Day surprise cake and expensive gifts, we could plan next the togetherness. They aren’t demanding at all, so most definitely no holes in the pockets burnt!

Meanwhile, I really got to figure out how to make Maa read my blogs. She always ditches it under the pretext of laziness or work. She’d let the whole world know about it and after a week when I go back asking for a feedback, she’d again be oh-my-bad-I-missed-it-again and “It must be good only since you wrote it.”

Also, I got to make her ride a plane sooner than her soon! And strategize because she isn't agreeing to prepare my favorite Mirchi pickle!

P.S: Happy Mother’s Day- If you’re reading it, go let her know you will never break-up with her again. Go NOW. J

2 comments:

  1. We have always got catalogues and prices around which all our equations evolve. <3

    ReplyDelete