Maa...

God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers!!!............Anonymous!!

Browsing through the newspaper I came across this ad showing some gift items on discount for mother’s day (8th May) – a bouquet of flowers, a pack of kaju barfi et al. The idea of giving a pack of kaju barfi to someone who has fed me all through my life with some of the most delicious home-made sweets seemed ridiculous. In the U.K, mother’s day is celebrated on 6th of March. We Indians do not have any particular day earmarked for the celebration, but the media has a propensity to go by the schedule of the people on the opposite side of the globe. I guess no one portrays moms in such high esteem as the bollywood films. Most of Amitabh Bachchan’s movies in his hey days had mothers as a very important character. Among the female protagonists in his movies the heroines had hardly any meat in their roles except for some song and dance sequences behind the trees (we saw Late Parveena Bobby in that role quite often). That dialogue sequence in Deewar between the two brothers – Mere paas gaadi hai, bangla hai, bank-balance hai, kya hai tumhare paas. Shashi Kapoor replies after a tense lull – Mere paas Maa hai. Manmohan Desai was such a genius at reading the emotional veins of the Indian viewers. During my school days, I used to sometimes wonder whether Nirupa Roy is the actual mother of Amitabh Bachchan. Whereas a mother is portrayed as a Goddess, a ‘step’ prefix makes her a fiend. Sauteli Maa is seen to make her step child do all the domestic chores and then beat him at the end of the day. In Beta the mother (played very well by Aruna Irani) goes to the extent of poisoning her step-son (the mahapurush of Bollywood – Anil Kapoor). That is something I couldn’t quite digest. Hindi film-makers are extremists when it comes to character portrayal. Either an actor is devta samaan or he is a rakshas. This is contrary to what we actually find around us. Most of us are moderates – is it not. The movies released during the last decade, have shifted their focus from the mother-son duo to father-son relationships – K3G or the recently released Waqt. This is probably because the most agyakari beta (read Vijay urf Amitabh Bachchan) of the yester years has grown on to become a father himself. And moreover this is an era of super moms – they are no more the traditional saree-clad bhartiya naari with a big bindi, busy with the kitchen work holding her baby in her arms. Lillette Dubey plays such super mom to perfection (in some crossover films like Monsoon Wedding, My Brother Nikhil.. etc). I doubt how many new moms (or would be moms) even know how to wear a saree. I really feel sorry for the upcoming generation.

Having said that, I firmly believe that the love of a mother towards her child can never be diminished. This is the purest form of love. Today I am miles away from my mom. Mummy, I can’t think of a present for you on the occasion of mother’s day. May be, I will just call you that day and say – I love you. I clearly remember how mischievous I was during my childhood. I used to always fight with you whenever you scolded me for reaching home late at night. I used to think that you were curtailing my freedom. Today, I am away from you, completely free to do what I wish to. When I return late night after watching the night show, I have no one to scold me. I have no one to tell me why it is good to go early to bed. I really miss you mom like anything – and more than anything else I miss your scolding. I need someone to scold me when I do something wrong. I don’t want this freedom. Probably this is the trick of life. You get to know the importance of something only when you don’t have that. I remember how I used to get fussy about the food, and you would be after me whole day so that I could have something to eat. Today, I have no option but to eat silently in the lost surrounding of the cafeteria. I feel so lonely. I don’t know if Goddess exists, but I certainly feel to be in her vicinity when I touch your feet.