AMMA - MOTHER & MOM

A beautiful sound when you say Amma, Mother or Mom. These are not just words. Most exalted feeling that reverberates throughout your body when you utter Amma or Mother or Mom. The sound touches the softest cord in your mind, heart or soul.

Whoever floated the idea of Mother’s Day? The origin lies in the period of Lent observed by the Christians. The fourth Sunday in Lent is observed as “Mothering Sunday”. The day May 11 had come and gone this year 2008. Oblivious to what was happening around, abruptly woke up to see my son and daughter-in-law giving a small gift for the occasion. A nice gesture indeed. It was joy to see the smiling face of Padma, my wife.

Me was not asleep and me was not awake either. The atmosphere in the room was calm. But, an ethereal feeling was enveloping my soul and body. The thinking symptom got stagnated. There was a gurgling sound of something percolating within me. From nowhere someone said “Ranga, take it easy”. From a blur to clear vision, my mother’s face appeared with a smile. That was a smile that could get me through the toughest times of the life.

Television was not there in those days. Only odd homes had the radio. For the males the only recreation was procreation. With the fearsomely low income my father made my mother to be delivered of eight children with just two years gap between the each. Today while thinking about it, me feel an excruciating pain in the soul.

My mother suffered a lot at the hands of her brother, who denied her the property rights, and at the hands of her husband. She suffered silently. By the time we grew up, she became a hysteria patient.

She stayed with me for a month. With the love and affection showered upon her by my wife and children, she became normal and started enjoying the freedom of life. But, it was not to be for a long time. Since she became normal, my eldest brother took her back to his home. She did not want to go and said “Ranga, keep me here”. Me said to her “Amma, you will come back here shortly”. My wife and daughter wept. My son stood dumbfounded. Me simply stared.

She again suffered in my brother’s home and breathed her last in a pitiable condition. Me could not fulfill the promise. The agony still persists in my mind.