Monday, January 6, 2020

ॐ शान्तिः। सद्गतिर्भूयात्।

The Year 2019 has ended. Unfortunately, this year turned out to be quite a sad year. There were many disappointing events over the year but the end of the year was nothing that I had dreamt of.
22-02-1945 to 09-12-2019
After a short illness and some dubious treatment by the doctors, my mother passed away in the month of December.
As this was going on, my wife's mother also had to pay a visit to ICU with some unexplained blood clots in her brain. Fortunately, with some timely intervention, she survived. The end of the year was a really depressing time.
My memories of my mother are all about her food. She had a great flair for cooking tasty food with whatever was available in the fridge.
I moved out of my home in the year 1991 with smaller stints in the US and Kotdwara in Uttarakhand. The majority of my time was spent in Bengaluru. I always made sure that I returned back to my mother's house a couple of times every year. After my daughter was born, she took a special liking to her grandmother and we continued to go back a couple of times each year. Whenever we will be there and go out for dinner as a family, my daughter will always come back and ask her grandmother for some food that she cooked. Whenever we start our drive at 4am, she will be up and make breakfast for us to carry along. Even though over the last few years with diabetes and asthma had taken a toll on her physically,  she soldiered on with doing things that she liked. We depended on her for many things and we are slowly recognizing how many things we probably will never find because it was all in her head. She could strike up a conversation with any of my friends or my brother's friends. She had a finesse about her, she would listen to all the conservative relatives of ours but she would finally say do what your heart wants.

She was from the generation that was born around Independence and had evolved as the country evolved over the years. She traveled in things like bullock carts, bicycles, two-wheelers, cars, trains, airplanes. She evolved from using wood-fired stove (चूल्हा) to coal-fired stove (अंगीठी) to LPG. She went from postcards to mobile phones. She evolved as things evolved around her. She had some very simple needs. She had never shown much interest in music but once fine morning she asked us to get the cassette for a song. I believe it was this one.
Over the years, I felt that she was taking it easy but after her passing away I realized that there were so many things that were dependent on her.  Mummy, thank you for everything that you've given us. The time that we shared during your presence amongst us will always be priceless to me. May God bless you. Always.

ॐ शान्तिः। सद्गतिर्भूयात्।