The Sweetness of a Mother.....!

The Sweetness of a mother..!

Mothers are a different lot altogether. This is appreciated when one is a child and if they keep up that feeling in later life. Generally, such feelings are seen to be lost in many as they grow up. This loss of the childhood feelings are the reason behind many people belittling their mothers at times, even though rarely.

Mothers look after their little ones with great fervour and if necessary, apart from looking after the little ones, they also go for work to find food for the smalees. I saw this when I was a little one. We had a simple life in a small shed house where father used to get food articles and mother used to cook them. Cooking in those days meant all the house hold work from cleaning and washing for all plus cooking. In such a time father fell sick and things stopped abruptly. There was no more food articles at home and that is when mother had to go out for work.

In those days, there were several works availavble which women generally did as a team. One was going to beat the hay which is not fully removed of the paddy in them. This secondary removal of the paddy sticking to the hay was for keeping the hay in future stock and those who do the beating to clear the lect over paddy from the hay, can have the paddy which they beat out of the hay. By the evening everuy wp,am wpi;d jhave nbeat arpimd five to ten measures of paddy. This paddy had to be taken home, fried, agaom neatem om a mill stone to remove the husk and the rice taken out before it is cooked. All these mother did, as if she is doing a simple work which is a natural thing that every body does.

Now, looking back, I can't beleve her perseverence and enthusiasm. She kept on for a while until father recovered from his phyusical illness and startede going to work again. There after, mother did not have to go for such work. When ever we questioned her she had the stock reply : “Working is not a problem for me. I only want to see you people should be properly fed and looked aftger. And of course, when you grow up, you can get enough groceries and things for the house and then, I won't have to go for any work.” As an eager child to help in the household, I used to follow mother to the house where she went for beating up the paddy from the fresh hay. That is when I used to play around and whenever she had a little time free, she used to come to me to talk.

Every mother in our neighbourhood thought the same for their children. When the paddy was brought home, the first thing was to bring water for cooking and house holduse. This was the next immediate necessity. Here too, I accompanied her to the well without any wll protection in a comound much below our house compound. Here, the land lies in different levels one below the other the gradient slowly going down and reaching the paddy fields. The well I distinctly remember as it had a huge tamarind tree on the edge of it. Mother used to lean to the well and pull the water using a long rope which she pulled back folding the coir rope from right hand to left hand from time to time. In the last lap she caught the 'pala' (the water pulling vessel) which she herself used to make from the arecanut leaf stalks. Making a pala into a water pick up, itself was an art using a piece of stick and a measure of cmall coir rope. This equipment is not only beautiful but also very clean. I worked for a season if kept well. It should not be allowed to be in the 'pala' after its use for pulling water., so that the pala remained dry.

Oine of such days she felt dizzy and this gave us very anxious moments. She had put the 'pala' into the well and slowly she kept the rope under one of her feet and turned around to the tamarind tree and held on to the branch with her head down. I asked her what is the matter, but shed did not reply for a while. After a long while she just turned around, picked up the rope, pulled up the water and slowly started walking towards home. On the way, she told me “ I was feeling dizzy. My head was realing and I was not in a position to reply you. That is why I did not reply your questions” “Thank God, I am ok, now” This made me really ill at ease. I was wondering how long she went to look after us all, providing all our needs without any care about herself..!