Saturday, May 11, 2013

Motherhood is the Purest form of Love, Highest form of Education & Best form of Leadership


A baby asked God, "They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?"

"Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you."

The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy."

God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. You will feel your angel's love and be very happy."

Again the child asked, "How am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?"

God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak."

"What am I going to do when I want to talk to you?"

God said, "Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray."

"Who will protect me?"

God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it means risking her life."

"But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore."

God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you."

At that moment there was much peace in Heaven but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name."

"You will simply call her, 'Mom.'

Abraham Lincoln said, ‘All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.’ I say the same. Mother is a word which means the world to me and I am sure it is true for everyone out there on this planet. I was born 29 years ago in a remote village of Rajasthan. I spent my first 16 years in that village where I did not have distractions of television, phones, newspapers, birthday parties, hobbies (not even reading) and going to gardens as there is still none. Hence all the time I had after school and homework, I spent observing my mother doing the house chores, taking care of us, three siblings and the cattle we had, interacting with family members, helping my father in his tailoring shop, handling the quarrels with my uncles & neighbors who perhaps were jealous of few materialistic haves to my parents and academic haves to me.

When I look back and reflect on that time; my family life has improved by few thousands of percentage points. People say it is all because of a worthy son. However, truth be told. I have just been a toy which has been designed in certain manner, programmed with some empowering beliefs and keyed in to perform; doer is my mother. She taught me some of the greatest lessons of life:
  • Love is a subject of sacrifice and behavior: Her busyness of 19 hours a day and untiring efforts to make her kids’ life better was the exhibited behavior. She never had time for celebrations and sorrows. Her focus used to be making some sacrifice and then making some more. 
  • Integrity is the best tool to influence and lead: She did cheat my father at times to save few extra bucks for my education yet she was epitome of honesty in making sure that the money is used only for the sake of education of her children, especially me. Honesty in thought, word & deed was also the spoken lesson. 
  • Fun is subjective thing: She did not have a job instead she had work and hence holidayed all her life. Every work she did gave her more energy, happiness & fulfillment. She had fun in her work – what an approach! 
  • Excellence is a function of promise, persistence & patience: ‘What you do may be insignificant still it is very important that you do that’, said Mahatma Gandhi. My mother lived this over and over again with undefined period of patience.
  • Time is life: Wake up at 3:30 am and finish dozens of activities from cattle to kids and household chores to helping in family owned tailoring enterprise, family chores included getting 20 water pots from public tank which was equivalent to walking 40 kilometers on sand tunes. This went on not for a week but for 16 years, 19 Hrs of work every single day. She never lost any battle to the clock instead, used to beat the clock without any alarm. Guiding belief ‘waste of time is waste of life, as it is the stuff life is made of.' 
  • Vision is a big differentiator: She is a dreamer. She dreamt of a life for me which I got to know much later. Her thinking is still at par or more forward than me. She saw a future for me and toiled day and night to help her son live the life of fulfillment. My village friends passed class X or XII and joined jobs and she strictly told me not compare with them, ‘big achievements take time just like mango tree takes time while weeds develop in less than a week’.   
I strongly believe in the Jewish Proverb ‘God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.’  My mother’s strength and love has guided me and gave me wings to fly. I attribute all my success in life to the behavioral and character education I received from her.
My life has just begun, the best is yet to come and I am confident that I am cut out for big things in life – all because of the empowering beliefs my angel mother inculcated in me.

She extended the purest form of love to me, even before I dreamt of sleeping with a beautiful wife.

She gave the best form of education to me, even before I stepped into Indian Institute of Management.

She showed what true leadership is, even before I spelt Mahatma Gandhi. ‘Thanks my angel mother. I owe everything to you. On this mothers’ day, I commit to see tears of happiness & pride in your eyes, more often.’

Let me give you one more reason to love your mother or mother of your kids, ‘A human body can bear only upto 45 Del (unit of pain). But at the time of giving birth, a woman feels upto 57 Del of Pain. This is equal to 20 bones getting fractured at a time.’

Go home and love your mom (or mom of your kids)! If you are a mom, accept my regards & respect!

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