Never the best of friends, but good friends. Sworn enemies one moment, friends the next moment. Friends who talk about life, relations, career, ambitions and LIFE! This is the relationship I share with my mother. My mother has never been the cupcake-baking, pouring love-like a Punjabi mother pours ghee on rotis sort of mother that you see in TV commercials. She is headstrong, righteous(always!), ambitious, career-minded and a working mother.
I can never think of a conversation with my mother that never ended in a fight or an argument, to say the least! I am headstrong, like she is. "Don't try to act smart, be half of what I am and then talk to me.'' Snooty, much. But no, that is the command she deserves and commands! Also, I can never remember her sugar-coating her words and telling me what to do and NOT to do. In fact I can't fathom how mothers need to be deceptive to get their way around their kids. Blunt, reserved... very reserved and always keen on learning. In short, everything that I am not, my mother is. A die-hard fan of Hema Malini, her only hobby is constantly enriching herself with latest technological advancements and updating herself with latest forms of education.
Right from waking up early in the morning, sending me and my brother to school to reaching work(on time) and making sure that she is back home when her two tykes return from school... I wonder how she managed it all. But then I realize, that mothers are all superheroes! My mother, being no exception... She hid her cape behind her strength that let her win all the odds that were against her.
She rarely bought me those expensive dolls, toys, clothes, shoes I yearned for but she never thought twice before taking me to the annual book-fair at school. She bought me books, plenty of them. And that's how began my tryst, never-ending love for books. From a very tender age she introduced me to books, which let me lead multiple lives living one. Of all her guidance, one that remains with me now and forever is - "Education is that one jewel that no one can take from you.''
Growing up, I got used to my mother reprimanding me, ALL THE TIME. Those times when she chided me I would shoot back saying, "Don't you have anything good about me to say?''. Today, even when I can manage my home when she isn't around the way she does(with all due credits to her), she won't stop finding faults at the minutest of things. That's the way she is, never content. Always wanting me to excel, be the best version of myself.
When I decided to change my career, to be a teacher, not many understood me. I didn't care either. I was not raised by mother to doubt decisions or to be answerable to others. As a child,with my hands clasped below my chin, I used to see my mother drape sarees and she looked every bit of the graceful, dignified teacher and a woman that she is and wish to be her, like her...
I can possibly not think of choosing any career other than teaching because of my mother, who was not happy with my decision. Well, how else will I be a tough nut, like her, if I don't experience at least a quarter of what she did. Today I am a teacher and its not surprising that I teach my students, just the way she taught me. Its in my blood, and my only role model is my mother. I've had some good, some bad, some really bad teachers, but my first and best teacher is and will always be my mother.
I definitely can't share everything under the sun with my mother, but I know I can always count on her. One thing, I can definitely not be is, her! This is for the core of my existence, my mother, with love.
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