Mama Mia!!

I haven't written here for 3 years but I keep planning my posts in my head, in fact I’m quite a popular blogger if you trust my imagination. I think Tanishq's Mia contest  is the best way to rekindle my blog especially since I'm going to write about my Mama Mia! I've seen the Mia advertisement so many times, I like both Megha & her Boss. Megha is smart, hardworking & believes in herself and her boss is a bit old school but still very open to changes, just like my Mum.

It was about 4-5 years ago, I was visiting the Madurai Meenakshi temple with my parents and my mum whispered "Be calm, take your time, observe every minute detail of the idol and take a mental picture of the Goddess. So she'll stay with you forever and whenever you are in distress, close your eyes and her picture will calm your mind". So I close my eyes and I see a South Indian lady clad in a blue bordered sari. She is wearing a big bindi, Mangalsutra, big beaded necklace and an expression very close a smile. No it isn't the Goddess; it is my mother, Amma.

The lady who has lived for her family but has also aspired to live for herself. She who has

strived to bring beauty to her work; to her speeches, poems, newspaper articles, paper presentations, her doctorate thesis & the list goes on.

I remember when I was just a kid, my mum would prepare for her speeches. She would sit at our dining table making notes all night and then recite the speech over 20 times before me while the pressure cooker whistled in the background. She would write poetry for both of us for the numerous Kavi sammelanas. To her teaching Tourism meant arranging tours to the much neglected 'Solapur Fort', meeting the ancestral family there & prepare her students to enlighten the whole city. When she decided to do her doctrate, she took her own sweet time, visiting & reading many temple inscriptions personally. No amount of pushing to hurry did any good because she'd decided to do it her way and her way meant perfection.

I’m not sure if watching her work is more intimidating or inspiring. I've heard stories about her helping with the birthing of calves at my grannies place, I've seen carry our sick dog in a plastic basket on a Luna to a Vet's clinic, shouting orders at a group of ladies while directing an award winning play, trying her hands at acting, translating books, tromping to an excavation site, making Idlis for my entire class, sacrificing Jewelry for Cushion covers, transforming my weedy backyard into a beautiful vegetable garden and running our family printing press.

She is not the prettiest but most beautiful, she won't kiss me but she'll cry for me, she'll let me wear hot pants but won't let me step out without my Mangalsutra, she'll never say 'Happy B'day' but will call up & ask my plans for B’day, she won't force the religion but will explain the scientific reasons to the traditions, she'll loose her temper for no reason but will also loose sleep over family's silly problems. She is not perfect but she's just perfect for me.

I’m quite thankful to the Mia Contest since it gave me an opportunity to my put feeling into words.