I love you Maa, you know na!

I love you Maa, you know na!

It is one of those days when I am sitting before a computer with the sole intent of killing time -- staring more at the clock on the bottom right of the screen than using the internet for any eventful purpose. Yes it is just one of those days!
Sitting in this dingy cyber cafe outside Sri Venkateswara College in South campus (where my sister is writing an exam), I have very little on my mind to scribble about. But then, since when have we started depending on the mind to be our ideation chamber? I have a heart too..equally thoughtful, perhaps more so today considering it is just 'one of those days' when a certain lady in everybody's life is remembered with extra special gratitude and warmth.

The 9th of May is indeed a very special day! Celebrate it with hugs, cheers and kisses...and leave no stone unturned in letting that one angel know what she means to you. I also wish I could do something more special than just making a trunk call to say "I love you maa!" It is 'One of those days' I wish I could barter my limited human capabilities with Superman -- say "Up up and Away" and fly the 2,300-odd kms that separates my mother and I.
How I wish I could hug her and let her aging hands hold me with the same protective spirit I had felt 23 years ago when a doctor separated our umbilical connection and placed me on her palms. Maa I know I have gained a bit in size and form, and so if need be, I am ready to be dwarfed if that lets me fit into your lap -- the only place on earth that feels like heaven.

Just your memories maa have made this cyber cafe look so much more bearable now -- in the last 25 minutes that I have spent penning my thoughts about you, I swear I haven’t looked at the bottom-right (clock) of the screen even once. Just your remembrance maa has made this "one of those days" seem so much better..so much more pleasant.

And as I see the greenery outside (very rare in Delhi!), I miss walking the green fields of Golf Links with you. The 'chicken' and meat shop outside this cafe reminds me of my 14-day tryst with 'Chicken' Pox two years ago, when you broke all rules of quarantine to be by my side when others, for their own good (lol!), had deserted me. I miss you to no ends maa..I realy do!!

It's a strange coincidence then that to further my thoughts on this very special day, I reflect on the work of a man who today celebrates his 150th birth anniversary -- one of India's most prodigious sons, Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

If I may be forgiven, I have tailored his eternally inspiring piece 'Where The Mind is Without Fear', to put into perspective just what I feel for my mother.

Where Mankind Is Without Tear
WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where love flows free
Where my world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls
Where your words come out from the depth of truth
Where my craving stretches its arms towards you
Where the scream of treason has not found its way
Into your caring habit
Where your life is led forward by me
Into that ever-widening thought and action
Into that priceless lap, my mother, let my mind awake.


Heartfelt prayers and oodles of wishes for all mothers..Happy Mother's Day!! And finally, I look at the bottom right of the screen again. It is time to rush to office. Much love!

PS: The original piece

Where The Mind is Without Fear

WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Rabindranath Tagore