Women never cease to amaze me with their versatility. They all seem to be a superwoman each, by the effortless ease with which they juggle with responsibilities and deftly switch between their multiple roles -- from one moment to the next, a doting daughter, a loving mother, a caring wife, an empathetic friend, a protective sister, an ambitious career woman, a patient house manager... and often, all at the same time! And yet they seldom compromise on any one of those roles, nor do they ever complain. They all seem to possess "dus haath" (ten hands) - just as the TV commercial for Surf excel says. Yes, indeed, they are all ten-armed Goddesses. But more than their versatility, I am in awe of their steely resolve. They are such fierce fighters and challengers, I must say. Because unfailingly, I have (almost always) found a 'never-give-up' attitude in most of the women whom I have come across in my life so far.
But there is one lady still, in this entire world, whom I would keep above everyone else - my mother. She is someone whom I always look up to whenever I am saddled between 'should I or should I not?' out of fears of failure. Because she overcame her challenges and obstacles that she encountered, through sheer will. Of course she has had her share of failures and disappointments but she never gives up, she simply says, "I'll just have to try harder". She is truly a woman of courage and resilience.
Her formative years and the initial phase of her married life were all about struggles; life kept on throwing challenges at her at every step but never did she give up her fight, nor did she ever lose her self-belief. And the number of times she has bounced back after each set-back is truly amazing. She has always been a tenacious fighter. I may sound like an over-enthusiastic, biased son but it's not really easy to be a woman-achiever (she is one) in this male-dominated world. No wonder, my mother has always been my hero, no one inspires me as much as she does.
She is indispensable in our lives and it was because of her that we could sail through the highs and lows without much difficulty. So it wouldn't be by any means farfetched to say that Mummy has been the fulcrum of our family. But sadly, the most under-appreciated occupation, I think, is that of a homemaker. Mind you, a homemaker's is a challenging full-time job and demands significant skill sets. But as is often the case, a homemaker in spite of being an astute house manager who handles all the affairs of the family, is many a time, taken for granted and doesn't get the respect she so deserves! Someone who would have happily put her own aspirations on hold, to serve the needs of her family, is seldom repaid with grateful acknowledgement!
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My Mother Is My Hero |
Mummy has always been very passionate about Odissi dance, she had taken a strong liking to it right from her childhood. She was a formally trained and acclaimed dancer during her teenage and adolescent years. She had won several prizes while representing her school and college. But her passion for Odissi was cruelly snatched away by her in-laws after marriage. She pleaded with everyone but didn't get support, not much from Papa either. She belonged to an era when dancing wasn't considered socially respectable for women, especially among conservative Hindu families (not even Odissi, a dance form that is primarily devoted to Lord Jagannath). She could do nothing then but cry. Gradually her life got steeped in domesticity - juggling between motherhood and family responsibilities.
But she still kept alive a faint hope that someday she could still start dancing again. However, to her luck, she had a freak accident once, due to which her right ankle got a crack in the bone. If that wasn't enough, a faulty plaster cast by the support staff of the doctor who first administered her, only deteriorated her situation. Even after keeping the leg wrapped in plaster cast for almost a month, nothing improved and she was still in pain. We visited another orthopaedic doctor thereafter who once again put her leg in a plaster cast. The bone did heal but the doctor said that there was no way the crack could be set right completely, since so much of time had already elapsed. As per him, mummy could never ever dance again. Indeed, she would feel unbearable pain when she tried dancing. And thus ended her dream of dancing again. She was dejected, yes, but she took it in her stride, she didn't let that setback to stop her from dreaming again.
RELATED BLOG POST: Be Self-Reliant ~ The Most Important Lesson That Mummy Taught Me
They say that life experiences mold our character. It's the circumstances and the situations (and how we react to them) that shape our lives and fortunes. Quite true. However, I will also add that people too influence our lives as much. Much of what we eventually become in life is often due to certain people in our lives who would have inspired us over the years, by setting examples and with their teachings.
One such person for me is my mother. Whatever I am today, I owe it to her. There are several people who have inspired me in many ways but perhaps no one else has impacted my life as significantly as she has. Not just because her personality has (definitely) exerted the greatest influence in my overall development but also because it was she who with her love and belief in me, made me independent and self-reliant. Click here to READ MORE...
She has always had this entrepreneurial streak in her and had dreamt of setting up her own business someday. And so she did, back in the 90s when we were still in school. Herself being a great saree connoisseur with a keen eye for the right colours and designs, she decided to start her home saree shop, not only to utilise her free time but also to augment the family income (so as to enable me and my brother to get better opportunities for our higher studies in the future). Of course, to begin with, it wasn't that easy arranging for the seed capital. Financially we weren't that well-off those days and both mummy and papa had to undergo a lot of struggles while raising us up. Papa had barely about ten thousand rupees in his bank account and he borrowed another ten thousand rupees from his provident fund. So those twenty thousand rupees were all that Mummy had, as her initial investment. But as luck would have it, her bags and the suitcase (containing the cash) got stolen in the train itself when Mummy and my mamu were going to Delhi, to buy her first lot of sarees! She had literally lost her entire seed money abruptly, even before making a single purchase and for a middle-class family, twenty thousand was a huge sum to lose. She was however not to be dissuaded, she always has had incalculable inner strength. She returned back to Bhubaneswar and after mortgaging her only savings - her heirloom gold jewelry consisting of a pair of bangles, a pair of earrings and a necklace - to arrange about thirty-two thousand rupees, she once again set off to Delhi. With the money that she had, she could buy just about fifteen odd silk sarees. The good thing however was that, all of them got sold within a week. The customers were so impressed with her choice of sarees that she got more orders for the same. In fact, some of them even paid her in advance.
The key idea behind her business was that from her, customers could buy the sarees by paying in installments (three installments at the most, spanning over three or four months) and moreover, mummy had still kept the prices way lower than that of the market leaders like Kalamandir or Boyanika or Rajhans for the same saree. Of course because of the installment scheme, she always ran the risk of losing money if the customer didn't turn up to pay the balance amount but Mummy would always say, "from the beginning, I have built this business based on trust and I'm sure I won't be cheated". The installment scheme helped especially those who were looking to buy sarees in bulk for a marriage in their family. Gradually she started procuring sarees from Banaras, Sambalpur, Kolkata and Surat too and she would herself go to make the purchases every time because she was very particular about the quality. And she would make every sacrifice to ensure that not much money was spent on accommodation or food while travelling; therefore she would always stay at budget hotels and would eat just one meal a day to save costs! For her, every rupee saved was a rupee earned. Her sacrifices, her sweat and toil finally started paying dividends; her business began to flourish steadily and the number of her regular customers too started to grow. With great perseverance, Mummy had actually succeeded in her first business venture and it continued for close to thirteen years, until Papa retired and we had to shift from the place.
By that time, both me and my elder brother had got jobs and so Mummy didn't have to worry any more about earning for our studies but she didn't stop at that. More than earning money, she said, she wanted to remain engaged in something productive and not idle away her free time. And so she started her next venture - a girls' PG that she presently looks after. Caring and affectionate that she is, no wonder, there too she is revered as a mother-figure. And she isn't finished yet, she plans to start her home food delivery service too, for the aged people and the students staying away from their families. I can already bet on her success, for she is truly an amazing cook.
For her, age is just a number. She really radiates an infectious enthusiasm for everything she does and gives her all to the task at hand; that for me, is very inspiring.