Sunday, May 13, 2007

Mother, you were ahead of time

["Many Native Americans regard the Milky Way as the path followed by the souls of the dead. According to the Zulu and Ndebele people of southern Africa, the stars are the eyes of dead ancestors, keeping watch on the living from above", Encyclopedia of Myths]

Mom and dad, a rare moment

The dead people becoming stars and blinking at you from the skies seems to be one piece of imagination that cuts across civilizations. Priyadarshan used it in his first big hit Chithram in Malayalam. Men and women wiped their eyes when Mohanlal asked Ranjini to look for him in the sky. "O the blinking stars, among you I seek the pretty faces that left me.." goes one song in another Malayalam film Purappad.

So has my mother become a star too? May be.

But as far as I know, she has always been a star.

With absolutely no intentions to compromise, with an immense desire to break free of the bonds that tied her, she traveled ahead in time. It is no wonder that she could not stretch it long.

(It is better to live a tiger's life for a day than live a dog's life a hundred years, my dad used to tell me. With no disrespect to the dog's life, I take the spirit of that saying.)

It will take many people like her before mothers become more than that.

Two years back for a Mother's day I wrote on what I learnt from her, thanks to rediff. After her death, I first wrote this and then this. This mother's day when I sit down to write on her again, I realize she is very much alive.


[in the pic: mom and dad, a rare scene]

6 comments:

Surface said...

es are out of love, or happiness seeing the way she is described,of course it is not of pain, i have reconciled with her death.It is just the award of star, and association with freedom that comes out as an alarm.
Today morning I thought of the incident as a failure of revolution in kerala society and felt restlessness to see many others following her.The death creeping into freedom loving spirits and making them prey to silence.Your post made me see even that as success, even if they die or be dumb in the process.

Surface said...

Not only that i feel she had rpomted in me a new perception to life, understanding her made me doubt myself.I lost confidence in my "way" of seeing(rejecting) the middle class life( which made her powerlessness so complex).I ask frequently to myself whether the total rejection of the values in which the nonacademic people live, is in any way affordable.

Red said...

very good post on mom's glad u brought it to my notice. altho wondered why there was not a comment on my posts :)

I blog at

http:\\iengarchick.sulekha.com
http:\\tambramred.blogspot.com

~Red

Sudeep said...

Red,
I liked your post but felt it was incomplete.. Not that we can give a complete pic of Motherhood but I'm happy if my two paise filled in some of the gaps.

വിനയന്‍ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
വിനയന്‍ said...

Hi Mr.Sudeep

Thanks for thenice Lines.The stars,winds,smells,rains everything contains our beloved souls.So when u experience those all your memmories is going to them.A gentle breeze is guiding you to your sweet immemmorable days.They are coming to u thru the nature.So that is not a simple wind or rain or stars , that is our souls.