Mother - Our First Guide

Amma (Mother) is an emotion. She gets talked about with very intense feelings. She is the one who teaches us about life and everything that comes with it. Usually when people talk about their mothers, its with love, its about how she cared for them, how she fed them, dressed them and took care of them when they were sick or otherwise.

I am going to talk about my mother who was an inspiring working woman. A woman who was the first to earn in her family after her father's untimely demise and had the responsibility of bringing up 5 younger siblings. Its obvious that times were tough. But she shared with us diligently whatever life taught her.

She took voluntary retirement as a High School Headmistress - coz we moved cities and it was important to get us all settled in a new atmosphere - after having tried remote living for a year.

1. Articulating values is equally important along with imbibing them : Sundays were oil bath time. She would diligently put oil for me and my sister and make us sit in the sun, and tell us moral stories. Stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata - most importantly the lessons we learn from those. This helped us with answers for many "why"s.
2. Calm in a storm : Life is unfair many a times. It throws many curve balls at us. The ability to face it all and overcome the challenges is not everyone's cup of tea. Amma, showed us how. She never flinched when Appa had a transferable job and she had to manage all on her own. She didn't lose heart when he had a heart-attack and had to undergo by-pass operation when we were still in school. She had a successful career - she let go of it and never regretted it. She re-built her musical career instead.
3. Learning never ends : She was a passionate Carnatic Musician. She learned and taught music through out her life. But the inspiring moment was when she did her Master of Arts (MA) in Music when she was grandmother! Her perseverance and her ability to manage it all was awe inspiring to say the least.
4. Social relationships matter : Social circle meant a lot to her. She was the perfect host, she would attend all family functions, she was a sought after friend in all gatherings, guests from all over used to come to our house for holidays... she was there for all, despite having a full time job, 2 children and everything else that comes with being a woman.
5. Mojo - The joy of doing things : When she was a teacher, she loved it. She participated in all school activities with enthusiasm irrespective of whether it was her area or not. She encouraged us to do the same, be it in school, college or even our own work places.
6. Social equity above monetary equity : Today, when she is no more - multiple people have called us and have only good things to say about her. She valued that and it has borne fruit. Her bank balance was not visible to everyone, but her good deeds were. Her personality was. She was.

These lessons have made us the professionals that we are today. Passionate working women with a penchant for family values.

We loved her for sure, after all she was our amma. We have shared our happiness with her, our sorrows with her, our frustrations with her. She was our punching bag. She was our bear to hug as well as the shoulder to cry on......

It sure hurts to talk about her in past tense, but the feeling of her presence continues to linger. She stays on in our thoughts to guide us in our professional journey and beyond.