By Radhika Mathur:
In the very busy lifestyle that all of us follow…daily assignments and targets, computers and mobile screens occupy our entire day; leaving us with little or no time to notice, acknowledge, appreciate and show love.
Very recently, I was forced out of this busy routine when I fell sick. It was the day my Mom took me to visit two doctors to find the right person to diagnose my sickness. On the way, she stopped at a grocery store. That’s when I saw it, outside the store, which in the evening becomes a hub for Moms. I saw a Mom driving her Father-in-Law to the doctor, another with a son in front and a daughter behind on a scooter and another walking to the grocery store holding a little boy’s finger. Some of them were my Mom’s age and some of them were close to my age. It was at that moment that it struck deep inside me; “I was surrounded by Superwomen”.
Every time we’re in trouble, we wait for a superhero to come rescue us. Superhero, a concept so fictional, that we stop believing in it on growing older. We never realize that it’s superheroes who have taken the courage to give birth and raise us. Our busy lives, our successes are all the result of how these superheroes raised us.
It’s irritating sometimes, when Moms keep asking us when we’ll eat, and yet, when we have flu, it’s just her hand we want to hold. Whatever we ask for, not once does a Mom turn around and say “No, I won’t do that for you.” Some of us also feel that if our Moms are at home or are doing a part time job, they have ruined their lives and we won’t do the same as we’ll be career oriented.
I’m also at a phase in my life where I’ve been thinking of some life plans and career choices. I realized that I don’t have the courage to build a family, take care of someone other than me and basically, do the things that my Mom did. It’s not always social pressure or not being modern or not studying abroad that makes a woman make this choice. Trust me, it is irritating to keep wondering when your child will eat, to take care each time s/he falls sick and to always say yes to make a midnight meal or cook breakfast and lunch early in the morning. And this is not a blind decision one makes. It’s a lifestyle and a career choice, which plain and simple takes COURAGE.
It takes courage to be a mom, to build a family and to take care of a household. It may not relate to the ‘modern society’ you have created in your mind, but nonetheless, they made these choices and took these decisions for us. What we generally think of as their ‘duty’ is a conscious decision they took. It takes a Superwoman to do this! To go through child birth and to take care of someone all their lives.
This Mother’s Day, I want to acknowledge the Superwoman my Mother is — for giving birth to me and my brother, for all the care she’s given us even though she’s struggled with her family, for forcefully making some choices as a daughter-in-law, yet never letting it compromise with the love she has for us. And after raising us as two strong individuals, she has begun standing up for herself. No woman asks for it or is made for it. She takes a conscious decision, goes through it, lives through it and is still a strong individual as herself.
At work, away from my Supermom, I have another Supermom, who’s running between her aspirations and vision for a better world for children, and is running between two organizations and is still running a household, is always there for her children, and amazingly also for her colleagues. I want to acknowledge her superpowers too.
This Mother’s Day, look around you. Acknowledge the superwomen around us. Wish them a Happy Mother’s Day and remember to thank them.