MOTHER- WITH A DIFFERENCE

BIKASH CHOUDHURY


My mother born 73 years ago in a little hamlet was a beautiful woman with a golden heart; her personality in a family photograph that adorns our home with my father and three senior siblings was no less of any current Bollywood diva; but, she was also, a woman-man with extra ordinary courage, strength, fortitude and an epitome of sacrifice as she pulled herself to support her husband to look after the children and widows of her husband’s two deceased brothers without any complain. She willingly shared all her meager resources and a small two bed room home. Single handedly fed fifteen hungry stomachs at home for years while many times skipped her launch or dinner. She had a very brief honey moon period when her husband was doing exceedingly well in his career and the commitments to the extended family was at minimum as they were all on their own doing good for themselves. But, as bad luck or misfortune would have it; she was struck again; as she lost her husband to a freak motor accident all of a sudden. Within a few days she lost half her weight and lost her moorings for a few months; but, soon she collected herself and gained composure to rebuild the broken pieces of her life and to take care of her three minor children and two grown up. She left no stones unturned to give a good life to her children; in such crisis like time in her own life she did not hesitate to help a neighbor with the finances or helping a tenant’s wife in baby sitting. All these she used to do with conviction and derive immense pleasure. Her belief in spiritual guru must have given her strength to face insurmountable challenges that life brought on the way. Now as she counts her last few breaths having inflicted with gull bladder cancer with an emaciated body in stark contrast to her beauty in her youth reminds about the transitory nature of life. However, she would go down as a valiant woman with rare resilience and be remembered as a benevolent woman who touched many human lives in a very sensitive way.