Blog@GraceJunction

May 11. Mother’s day celebration across the world. A day to celebrate probably one of the most cherished relationship of our lives.

Mother. The very first person that we probably called out when we learnt how to use our vocal cords more meaningfully. The first person whose touch made us feel at home and secure.

All of you, I am sure, will look back to your relationship with your mothers and it will generate in you emotions which swing from calmness to pure joy. Mothers tend to be our greatest calming influence as they are so strong at heart and at the same time can be a great friend atleast compared to the father, who sometimes has this image of the disciplinarian, with big moustache and a stick in his hand but not always so! There are many I am sure who might differ but a greater number who will agree with me.

From, the ancient times, becoming a mother was considered a great honor and the inability to bear a child was looked down on, with the society considering the influence of a barren woman a curse and a bad omen. We see many women even today, visiting religious places and crying out to God to open their barren womb.

As if this was not enough, even successfully giving birth to a child, once she conceives is another difficult task. The organization, ‘Save the Children’, has ranked the countries of the world, and found that Scandinavian countries are the best places to be a mother, whereas countries in sub-Saharan Africa are the worst. A mother in the bottom 10 countries is over 750 times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth, compared to a mother in the top 10 countries and a mother in the bottom 10 countries is 28 times more likely to see her child die before reaching his or her first birthday.

In India, things have always been difficult for mothers. First they were treated like the scum of the earth for not bearing children and then for bearing a girl child. Many are not even allowed to give birth to a girl child, having to swallow the bitter pill, of seeing the seed of her womb getting killed,  just because the society, most often their closest not wanting a girl and asking them to drop the child.

I wrote all this, just to remind you of the pain our mothers went through and especially if you are a girl, your mother would have taken pride in you and made many of her dreams around you and it’s time to tell her, “I love you mom!”.

Living in a male dominated society and a male dominated family they have always been asked to put aside their wishes and live their life for others. So it has been with many women who in their young ages would have been asked to stop their studies mid-way, get married and before they even know their playful days are over and now they find themselves as caretakers of the family. Most of us brought up in India would remember our mothers getting up early to prepare food for our families simultaneously getting the children ready for school and doing the rest of the daily chores. Finding the husbands socks and rushing to get the children’s school bag ready has become part of Indian folklore. It does not stop there, the long queues for water, ration, vegetables and much much more. Well, there is no excitement or glamour left in their lives, it’s the daily grind to get the household ready and going. It’s a life of sacrifice and caring, rarely for themselves! At the end of the day, well it was always a thankless job, a tired husband and worne out children. But for the sheer joy they had to see their loved ones happy, they would go through it again, the next day!

A recent report said that flower sales in the US and many other parts of the world have dipped with recession in sight. And this Mother’s day is going to see a major dip in flower sales compared to previous years. The title said, “We love you mom but sorry we can’t send you those flowers!” Well the question that we need to pose is, “Is love and the expression of it an extravagance?” We would love to love and express it too when it is convenient, but when it is tough to love somebody, do we do a decent retreat?

I want to take this small tribute to the mothers with a pinch of salt, as we are in the midst of changing times! Times when even a mother’s love is not strong enough to evoke a response! What could be the reason? 

Some days back, I saw the photo of a bruised child which was left in the garbage bin, at the mercy of the street dogs. Probably the mother did not want to see the face of this illegitimate child. Another report says that increasingly working women are falling prey to breast cancer, lack of breast feeding being one of the major reasons. Working women are also not able to devote enough time to their children. Single parenting is becoming common and children growing without the love of their mothers are ever increasing. The number of abortions arising out of unwanted pregnancies is increasing, leading to mass homicide of unborn fetuses.

So the rise of the modern woman, has come at a cost! Motherhood is getting diluted! Whom to blame?! Well, I don’t want to sound like a male-chauvinist but the things that we see around us is the result of many choices that we made on the way. Expression of love to mothers, has now got into the list of expenses that people are cutting to fight the recession! Isn’t it sad?

Oh how I wish that God would come before His time and in a moment change things for us, atleast in this area, where we are now suffering - the most elementary, involved and purest of human relationships, the mother-child.

But nothing stops me from giving this tribute to mothers. Yesterday or today, they truly have shown us, how to love. It’s just that we have strayed in our ways in the last couple of decades.

But there are many out there, for whom this subject and emotion is unknown as they would have never seen or felt their mother’s love. For them, I want to leave them with what God says in the Bible

Isaiah 49:15 says “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”

Psalm 27:10 says “Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me”

Probably your help is just a cry away!

As for me, I too cry to Him and He receives me but today I want to just thank Him for my mother and I want to tell her, “I love you mom, you are the best.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Navin, Relationships, Society, Youth Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.