A mother is a walking miracle

In many countries, the Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May every year. It falls on May 14 this year. The concept of celebrating the Mother’s Day is not an Indian idea. In this country, people see mother in everything. For Indians, the word ‘Mother’ is more than an angel. They do not believe in honouring her on any particular day a year. Instead, she is revered every day. Indians find mother in the Panchatatvas (Five Elements). For them, Earth is Bhoomata, language is ‘Matru Bhasha,’ and the country is looked upon as Bharat Mata. Similarly, rivers such as Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Kaveri are worshipped as ‘Mata’ or mother. Even when a small girl child is to be addressed, she is addressed as ‘Amma’ or Thalli’ which again means mother.

Similarly, most of our Goddesses like Durga (Goddess of Shakti), Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge), Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth) are all called as ‘Maa’. In fact, Goddess Lakshmi is seen in eight different forms – from wealth to food grains. Even while offering prayer, it is Mother who is given the first place. “Matrudevo Bhava” comes first and then Pitrudevo Bhava.”

Whether it is the present-day educated mother who has to perform much difficult roles both as a homemaker and money earner in nuclear families or the women of yesteryears who were full-time homemakers managing a joint family, she has always proved to be a top manager and multi-tasker – carrying out her tasks with ease and aplomb. She has skills and seems to be endowed with certain techniques which would not be found in any business school syllabus. Her strategies were based on what she had learnt from her elders. “Save some money from your earnings for rainy day.” Homemakers who are not working women save money given to them as monthly household expenditure. That money is used to invest in asset creation or to meet any contingency, such as buying gold for daughters’ marriage or standing by family members in case of any crisis.

Woman in India has abundant reserves of patience. There are any number of incidents where men throw tantrums, but women are known for being extremely patient. That is the reason why in India, the concept of divorce was a rare thing. Of course, over last three decades there has been some aberration in the institution of marriage and the tolerance and patience among both men and women is diminishing, leading to a steady rise in divorce cases.

Even as a team leader, women usually tend to excel in their work. By and large, they aim at personal development of every single member. Another major quality the women have is empathy in abundance. They understand the issues pertaining to their family members or the teams they are leading if they are working. In case of any unfortunate incident or family crisis or any other emergency, their patience and understanding help them maintain equanimity and salvage the situation.

Though sometimes they appear to be introverted, they are best communicators and can find a perfect solution. They come up with instant solutions to several problems. A woman knows very well how to indulge in multi-tasking and is always a great performer whether it be at home or at her workplace. Apart from her job, she manages the daily chores, takes care of children and requirements of husband. All that she does with ease and aplomb, whether she gets some help from the man of the house or not.

Many times, she also suffers domestic abuse if her husband is a male chauvinist or is addicted to liquor and other vices. Yet, she tries to keep the family united despite the sufferings she undergoes at the hands of the husband. Even if the man of the house does not have vices, some tend to look down upon women. They want the money she earns, but she is discriminated against by not involving her in any other issue pertaining to the family. What they do not understand is women are very good at networking which is the most essential quality of a good manager. In the present-day scenario, networking is a very important tool to make the family or business a success.

Another quality women have is high-level organisational skills. They know how to meet the deadlines for household chores or project schedules at workplace. There are any number of examples where women have proved their abilities in taking businesses to new heights. They are good at coaxing team members to rise to the occasion and step up to meet the goals.

Women are also known for their keen observation skills which helps in engaging the family members and motivating them or their teams at workplace as compared to male managers who do not have enough patience to mentor and motivate the team.

Till about four decades back, the woman used to play another important role as grandmother. She used to play a major role in shaping the minds of her grand children by narrating stories and teach them moral values and importance of family bonding. But as joint families started disappearing and nuclear families have become the order of the day, grandmothers are viewed as outdated and burden by all starting from her son to grandchildren.

Another side of the modern-day woman that the society is witnessing is once the status of a woman changes from that of being a daughter-in-law to mother-in-law, her attitude undergoes a tremendous change. She feels that her daughter-in-law is good for nothing and she wants to continue her domination and takes out all the frustration she suffered following the new addition to the family. She forgets all that she had undergone and what her feelings in her earlier avatar were. Such attitude leads to clashes in family. As a mother, she wants her son to continue to keep listening to her only and not give due importance to his wife or her views, forgetting that she too was a daughter-in-law till recently.

The other change that is being seen in India is the new concept of sending mothers to old age home by some children because the children are settled abroad and there is no one to take care of the old lady who would have sacrificed many things in her life to bring up the children and give them good future. In other cases, too, many children are seen not willing to keep their mothers with them. They don’t mind spending money on old age homes. They do not care for her feelings or emotions. There are many examples when the children could not come back in time even to have a last glimpse of her in case of death.

One important aspect that needs to be understood here is that a woman can be protector and destroyer too. When we talk of women being a destroyer, no offence is meant as she has been destroyer of evil. Ramayana or Mahabharata stands witness to the fact that women have been the cause of all that had happened. If Seetha were not there, then there would have been no Ramayana and Ravana, perhaps, would not have gone to war with Rama and got killed. If Draupadi was not there, the war of Mahabharata would not have taken place.

In one word, a mother is Blessed,

Protective, Nurturing, Lovable Fierce, Truthful, Demanding, Amazing, Understanding, Selfless, First teacher and at times Ruthless. Let’s salute the magnificent women. ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam.’