To world whatever she might have been, a poetess, an author, a teacher, a social worker, to me she was just my mother and how so ever lagging behind my peers in every respect , my being her son was enough for her.
Life was so simple and so good. There were very few rules to follow
1) Don’t tell a lie
2) Don’t fail in final exams.
That is it!!
Point (1) I was never reprimanded for not following it. Point (2) I was always the one to be given grace marks.
What do I thank my mother most for?
For teaching me how to cook at the age of 14, this not only made sure that I never went hungry, it also laid the foundation to respect women, whatever and where ever.
Had she been around she would have been very proud with what I have done with my life BUT most likely had she been around I wouldn’t be what I am today. A satisfied man is not the best person to ask or expect ambition from.
It was 21 years ago today, that fate decided that I am to grow up in a single stroke. I don’t regret the hurt I went through at 15 but I do feel that at 45 years she was too young to die from a cardiac arrest.
In most of the ways I just grew up that day, but in some ways I am still a teenager.
I still miss her, I still want to show her everything I do with the same glee as the crabs and snakes that I use to catch. I still want to hide my head in her lap shut my eyes and sleep off when the pressures of this world get too much to bear, but again I know, some how some where, she is there for me, I couldn’t have walked so far life without the help of my mother who insisted that I, all of 12 months old, walk with her to the podium when she got her MA degree… …
I however have still not fulfilled one of her wishes. She wished that I should learn how to read and write Urdu.