MOTHER

I came home yesterday from my hostel for a tiny summer break, and after a long, long time, got the chance to take a lingering, calm look at my mother. I call her mother, but she is known by the names of Bharat, Hindustan and India by the onlookers. 

I celebrated my 20th birthday recently, and realised that my mother would celebrate her 79th birth year now after being delivered by the Caesarean section of Partition in 1947. And my oh my, the old hurdles of her life never seem to disappear, don’t they? The lines on her face clearly reflect the recent headlines we have been surrounded with, and these lines are so stubborn that no amount of niacin-amide and retinol serums in the form of changing political regimens, policies and judgements would be able hide them. 

If I skim through the latest Times of India copies, or just give a ChatGPT prompt right now to flash the top news headlines of India, there would be a fixed pattern that has not changed since my mother’s birth:

1. A piece on Kashmir and cross border rift with our ever-insecure neighbour.
2. Communal tensions in some part of the country.
3. Women under attack- domestic abuse, sexual assault, blackmailing, witch-hunting and what not. 
4. Political blame game on trivial issues, ignoring the more important topics at the helm. 

I was watching a movie with my friends when we got to know about the Pahalgam attack and the room went silent. We lost our sleep that night, which is nothing as compared to the scars on the souls of those siblings of mine who were put to sleep forever by some wretched, execrable, cowardly “gatekeepers of religion” who know nothing else but to divide humans, and spread fear among them. 

What followed after, was as expected and as planned by those terrorists- communal rift on my mother’s soil and disruption of peace. Rather than focusing on the specific people and the nation that was behind this despicable deed, we started blaming each other. On that day, my mother gave a tired sigh again- because this has always been her history. Just because she was welcoming and willing to nurture all her children equally- which is the basic principle of Hinduism; ignoring their roots and differences, naysaying outsiders have always benefitted by targeting these very differences and taking undue advantage of this Hindu ideology. 

The terrorists, by taking side of a particular religion and mercilessly killing those who did not belong to that religion, wanted to create walls further, but as siblings, it is our duty to not let them succeed. All communities must understand that secularism applies to every group and selective secularism leads to a country’s disintegration. Everyone should call out what is wrong, but at the same time spewing hate is not going to lead us anywhere. 

As if rifts between different religions was not enough, we are not yet free from the caste system too. Think about Veer Savarkar, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule, Savitribai Phule, Lokmanya Tilak and many such legendary personalities when you play ‘’item songs’’ on loudspeakers on Ambedkar Jayanti, deny eating from same vessel as the other person even in 21st century, talk of increasing reservation in all fields upto 68%, and assault people based on their caste. Did you find what you were looking for? Yes I am talking about shame. BLATANT SHAME and nothing else. If this continues, politicians alone cannot be at fault for their blame-game and diverted focus from the real issues of the country. Dear netaji, Nation’s interest is your interest, when would you finally realise this? 

Let’s talk about women now. Saved this for the last, because we started with mother and I would like to end with her too. Addressing a woman as a mother is a great way to escape, dear regressor, as Bharat Mata, Bhavani Mata, Saraswati Mata; they all are divine and we worship them, but groping, assaulting, honour killing, witch hunting, cat-calling, discriminating in almost every field, is okay, because not everyone is a “Mata” right? Women are a great unifying factor coming to think of it, because they have always been easy to oppress, no matter which religion, caste and sect they belong to. In urban modern settings too, “We allow her to study, work and wear whatever she wants to wear” earns you brownie points, but isn’t this a basic right? I have been reading TOI since I was maybe in the 2nd grade, and since then not a day has passed when I have not seen their characteristic pink and black symbol of ‘Woman under Attack’. I am hoping for that day to arrive soon. 

Don’t look so tired mother, don’t lose hope on your children. They are figuring out the right path, they would find it out soon. Come, I will massage your head till then. Oh how much more you’ll work today? Take some rest.