MOTHER’S - ALL WE NEED TO KNOW AND DO IS.....

Every year Mother's day comes and goes like all other days, but I never stopped to wonder about its origin. I did not need to ... Mom was no more and for me that day meant missing her terribly and remembering her... I do not know what prompted me to look for facts about this... perhaps because it was that day again - January 18th - the day I lost her to an accident. Perhaps I was missing Mom more than usual today .... 

Unbelievable but true, I read that history says Mother’s Day started as an anti-war movement in the 1850s by Ann Reeves Jarvis. Ann Reeves Jarvis had initiated clubs to improve sanitary conditions, lower infant mortality and tend to wounded soldiers during the US Civil War.…. but it was her daughter Anna Jarvis was responsible for what we call Mother's Day in 1908. For Anna it wasn't a day to celebrate all mothers but a day to celebrate the best mother you have ever known and sadly it is said that she spent most of her later life fighting what it had become - a commercial event. 

No matter what history says I do believe that Mother need to be celebrated every day just because they are the one person God created to take care of things when he could not... you know that saying "God created God cannot be everywhere so he created a "MOTHER "...... 

"The natural state of motherhood is unselfishness. When you become a mother, you are no longer the center of your own universe. You relinquish that position to your children"~ Jessica Lange 

How true is that ...let me quote a few lines from my book YOUNG AND SIXTY (Page 95)..... 
"My neighbour's words still ring in my ears saying "your Mom used to pray, take me instead".... I truly believe that God listened, because my brother-in-law did live many years thereafter, perhaps the number of years my Mom would have....... Mom was true to the word and meaning of "Mom", a selfless, loving human who sacrificed her wants and needs for her daughter..... " 

........and then there are those Hindi films ... those very filmy mothers that make mothers seem like they are meant to be sacrificing lambs to the slaughter and never ending drama queens ....that torn white saree, that frame in the hand and "Mere bete aayenge, mere Karan Arjun aayenge..zameen ki chaati phad ke aayenge, aasman ka seena cheer ke aayenge," really??? ........or then that never ending coughing mother on a sewing machine.... but then it could also be that sophisticated mom who turns and opens the door that exact moment the son is standing at the door "aaaa aa aa ..kabhi khushi kabhi gam" types......or it would be  the most favourite doting mother.... Way back in my times, all mothers were the suffering sacrificing types....and there used to be that one eternal mother in every second film, namely Nirupa Roy, with the most popular dialogue ‘Mere paas Maa hai!’ today to her credit..... then there was that ever messed up hair and unhappy faced Leela Chitnis.... that ray of hope the "aaye meri zohra jabeen" Achala Sachdev ...the dimpled Durga Khote.. and Mother India Nargis who stands out as perhaps one in very few as strong willed mother who sacrifices her son for truth...... and then there was that mother that probably no one would ever want to celebrate mother's day with, Lalita Pawar, the wicked and scheming mother+mother-in-law.... 

.....but mothers are mothers at the end of the day .... in English we say Mom, Mum, Mummy, Mommy, Mother ...in Hindi we say Maa .... in Marathi we say Aai....and believe it or not Wiki says that in Japanese the word is Okaasan or Haha (Haha? now that's a good one indeed).....and so on... No matter how we address them, they make us who we are and we need to  thank them for being there for us every step of the way... 

So you decide what's the best way to celebrate your mother.. Whether it’s a phone call (they always are waiting for that, you know),  or taking her out to lunch.......There are a million ways to celebrate her for who she is,  but end of the day, just add that little spice... words that all that all mothers need is to hear - "Thank you for all you've done for me” ...“I am glad you are MY Mom” .... and don't forget to ask her “What can I do for you?”, though I guarantee she will say "I am fine and I don't need anything".... The next coming Mother's Day think simple love..... Remember its cool to be seen with her because her unconditional love won’t stop no matter where you are ....no matter how hard you try ....or how old you ....or how far away you are living .... Remember a simple phone call if you are too far away or tight hug and a "I love you, Mom".... that's what they are waiting for... that's all I want to tell Mom (wherever you are) and that is all I am waiting for too.

Me, Sugar Mediaz and an afternoon with Mookdhwani School* for hearing impaired children

It is said that some connects that you make become lifelong relationships that go beyond the unexplainable. Many many years ago, I had read an advertisement and learnt the art of voiceovers with Darrpan Mehta, a leading and respected Voice Actor  at  Sugar Mediaz. Thereafter, I truly have lost count of the years or the many times, I have shared happy moments with Darrpan, Janvi and Kiran.. and this time was no different. A phone call from them is all it takes to get me scuttling to their office with a happy smile.

You may wonder why? Simple. What I love about Darrpan (apart from the friendship) and Sugar Mediaz is that despite the traditional role of being an audio content production house, they choose unique and different activities as part of their social responsibility initiatives, such as *surprise X'mas party for 150 kids of Prayas Street School, *Buy a Diary-send a child to school project, *campaign to collect books, stationery and musical instruments for prisoners of Indore Jail and my favourite of all 300 paper bags containing packets of wheat flour, sugar, rice and pulses sent to family&friends in Diwali (including me) with a request to pass it on to less privileged people.

The initiative this time!!! An afternoon to celebrate Teachers day with fun and games to create a bond between teachers and children at *Mookdhwani School* for hearing impaired children.... and as always, I was ready to be a part of their initiative. 

September 6th, 12.30pm and we and the volunteers were all ready to have fun with them, but wait !! let me first share a bit about the school that Sugar Mediaz was bringing happiness and joy to....*Mookdhwani Vidyalaya*, managed by Utkarsh Mandal, situated in a by-lane at Vile Parle, is a Marathi medium school, established in 1982, providing free education to the hearing impaired children as also parent counselling, guidance, rehabilitation supported by teachers, speech therapists and social workers.

I cannot even start to explain the overwhelming feeling that came over me standing in the school hall and watching 100 children of all ages walking in and settling down in front of us. At that moment, I realised that all the "dumb charades" talent in the world would not be enough to communicate with them or would it? It made me wonder that when they were looking at me doing the talking, was it like what I felt while watching a silent film. Maybe not, because you needed to be there to hear the laughter as the children communicated with each other despite living in a world of silence themselves...as  did team Sugar Mediaz with them. Dividing the children into groups with a few teachers in each group; that was easy!!! but conducting the games was no easy task, believe me. You will not believe the number of times, stupid old me, out of force of habit said "suno" on the mike completely forgetting that "suno" was a word that did not exist in their lives. Starting off with two minute games such as poking straws in the hair, bindis on hands, balancing coins holding biscuit in mouth and so on were received with much exuberance. Simple games like musical chairs and more, especially conducted just for the teachers made them so happy that we were surprised to be told that in past years, no one had ever thought about conducting games for them. A balloon tied to the ankle of each teacher and letting them loose to burst the other's balloons while saving their own had them in splits. I cannot even get to down to expressing the amount of laughter and noise the teachers themselves were making. It was hilarious to actually have to tell the teachers to 'stop and listen'. Darrpan dressed up as a clown making an entry with chocolates and little toys which he threw to catch, had children screaming, scrambling and grabbing as much as their little hands could. Amidst many more such fun games, the afternoon ended with prizes for games, and gifts & snack boxes for everyone.

I realised by the end of the afternoon, the true meaning of "my world may be silent but I can hear with my hands". I had completely forgotten about the disability as the eyes, the heart and the hands spoke volumes and no one was needed to translate anymore. The one thing I learnt today, is simple. No one is really deaf or dumb and all we need to do is respect each other's intelligence and communicate ...... and as the tag line of Sugar Mediaz says, let us just "communicate better" with a dash of understanding and a sprinkle of compassion ... So  the next time I think of turning a deaf ear, I will think twice !! 

A POEM DEDICATED TO MOM

A POEM  

Dedicated to my sweet Mom with love who taught me to look up at the sky and see the beautiful art forms that God created with clouds in the sky……

clouds…

Mom, you showed me pictures in the skies
Clouds in different shapes and size
Cotton wool, cotton candy, fluffy pillows, a cone of ice-cream
Bubbling foam, splashes of colour in the skies, hissing steam

Sometimes a duck, a rabbit too, a funny face, angry too
Floating above, light as feather across the sky so blue
Changing shapes as each minute goes by
Moving along in a blink of an eye
Sometimes soft like kiss on the cheek
Sometimes dark and sometimes bleak

Calm and white carpets, dark grey angry clouds
Watching upon the earth as birds fly through
In the dark night hide and seek with the moon
Softening the blow of the hot red sun in the afternoon

And when lightning struck the clouds you said
God's lights are not working, come out from under the bed
When the rains came and flooded the earth
God needs to clean his house once a year, you shrugged

Each time I look up at the clouds in the lovely sky
I see your smiling face and wish had wings to fly
To share with you the fun and storms, I withstood
To give you a hug, say the good bye I never could