Three
Mothers – please try to answer the question at the end to yourself, after reading all 3 stories
Agnetha
It was in 1960’s when Achilles Kleanthis, a cottage cheese producer/merchant
of Attica found his goddess in the down valley of Mount Aegaleo. Yes Agnetha
was no less than any Greek goddess in her 20s when Achilles met her for the
first time. Though Agnetha was born to a grapes farmer did not had any great
gene-ology for claim, Achilles decided to marry her and he gave a diamond
necklace on her wedding day. She did all that for Achilles just like his queen on his
responsibilities front, they had travelled across the globe, enjoyed all the
good things in life. She had 5 children from Achilles; 3 daughters and 2 sons;
Time moved on, world around her changed; Achilles had a bad habit of spending
money on betting in horse race; in the due course, he has lost all his money
and business through this. His eldest son followed his father’s path and died in
an accident while learning horse riding. Whatever money and assets left with
him, he has divided and given to his children in his will. He expected his
children to take care of their mother and hence didn’t keep anything for her.
Agnetha is now in her old age, is taken care by her youngest daughter Alena. Alena
has got her on limitations to help. She needs to do it based on what her
husband dictates; she has got ‘do and don’ts’ written. Agnetha has nothing with
her except a diamond necklace, probably is the only reason Alena’s husband
allows her to live in their house. Agnetha has approached her other daughters
several times – but they have their own reasons for not keeping her with them.
Some of them are real genuine reasons. Here is a Greek mother (once a lived
like a queen), counting her days, living like a servant in her own daughter’s
house.
Laxmi
While Agnetha was feeding cattle in the valley of Mount Aegaleo, Laxmi
was performing here teaching duty in the small village of Chidambaram in the
southern state of India. Her husband Kuppuswamy was a temple priest and a
servant of lord Vishnu. They live in their ancestor’s house inherited from
Swamy’s father. They had two children, Thangam and Mohan. Thangam got married
to Raja, who works in Central reserve Police and lives in the north. Mohan who
was very good at his studies, completed his management studies from IIM
Bangalore and now works for a banking giant in the united states. Swamy decided
to give his house to Mohan; this is when Mohan suggested building a new house.
Swamy sold his old house to raise some capital to help Mohan to buy some land
for their new house. Laxmi and Swamy always wanted Mohan to get married to her
brother’s daughter Meenakshi. Their dream got shattered when Mohan arrived home
from US with Karla, his Danish wife. Swamy could not bear it and asked him to
leave the home. Mohan felt insulted and left the home. That is last when he
visited his India home. He lives in Florida with his Danish wife and son Varun.
After this incident, Mohan stopped interacting with his Parents even on the
phone. The house construction was left half way and Mohan has now no interest
to continue or return back to India. During construction phase itself, Swamy
and Laxmi had move into the new half-done house. The old couple expected time
will cure the things and they were waiting for his son to return. Swamy once
wrote a letter to his son that they are ready to accept Karla, for this which
they never got a reply. Swamy was not sure if Mohan intentionally not replied
or if the letter reached him or not. In the due course, Swamy passed away left
Laxmi in the half constructed house. She is now 73 years lives alone in this
house, gets a small pension from the temple trust for all Swamy’s good service.
Each and every corner of the house you see misery and poverty. The only help
Laxmi has the childhood friend of her living nearby.
Here is
an Indian Mother, who has given nothing other than love to their children in
her entire life; but has nobody to take care of in her old age; she is not
living, she just exists.
Rabeeha
Latakia is a small city in the western cost of Syria that touches the
Mediterranean. Ahamed is a poor middle class fisherman lived in the downtown.
He goes out to the sea to catches fishes and sells in local market for living.
His house and the small manual boat are the only assets that Ahamed had. In
spite of having a large family (7 children, wife, mother and mother in law), he
lived very happily with whatever earning that he had. He always lived for a
day, whatever he earned in a day, get spend on the family and next day 0400 AM
is again a new day. Almighty was always kind to him, and gave him good catch of
fish on all days. In this house there were two mothers, his mother Rabeeha and
his mother in law Haseena. If you discount her ‘night blindness’, Rabeeha
was very healthy and enthusiastic lady. She used to do all house hold work,
took care of all the children of Ahamed. Haseena (Ahamed’s mother-in-law) was
bed ridden for a long period of 17 years till she passed away 2 years back. She
will be always grateful and thankful to Rabeeha as she has done all the needful
in these seventeen years of her helplessness. It was yesterday evening that
Ejaz (Ahemed’s eldest son) has got a call from his mother, saying that Rabeeha
has passed away. Ejaz was surprised to hear that he was not asked to come back
to Syria to do the last rituals. There was always a friction between Rabeeha
and his mother; he considered it a usual saas-bahu issue – but he never knew that
the problem is so deep that he was not even called for before they buried his grandmother.
Ejaz questioned his mother for reasoning – the story that his mother
told was really surprising. “Son, at no doubt she was your grandmother and also
she is not your grandmother, which requires you here for the last rituals. You
can fly down from Dubai as soon as you can if you wish so”. Ejaz was puzzled to
hear this. His mother continued the story. “Rabeeha is not your real grandmother;
your father is not born for her. The story goes like this, some years back,
when you very small child – one day while your father was winding up his fish
stall and leaving the market in the afternoon, he could see a lady sitting in a
corner and crying. She was whispering ‘Ahamed’, ‘Ahamed’. Ahamed approached to
see that its Rabeeha sitting there and crying, He asked the matter – She
replied that her son has left her in the Market and went to get some water for
her and she was waiting for him for a long time. Now she does not know how to
go back to home nor does she had any address or land marks; All she know is the
name of her son ‘Ahamed’. It was little late in the evening and was raining; Ahamed
found out that she is blind as well. Your father thought ‘Bring her to home’ is
the right thing to do in that evening. We did all honest efforts to find her
real son Ahamed, but could not, and thus she became part of our family”. Ejaz
was overturned with mixed emotions; could not say anything back. He was literally
in tears. He said “Ammi, I am flying tonight, just to meet my father, the
biggest heart on the earth”. He has taken care of a mother for 2 decades, who
is none to him, in this new era where people are not taking care of their own
parents.
Having
read all three stories, which mother/father you want to be in your old age? OR rather in which of the above scenario you
want to see your parents?
Decision
and Actions are both yours, I am just a messenger. My answers to above question is 'I should do all that to my parents, which i want my children to do for me in my old age'.
Yours Truly,
Aary
