A mom

1997. I was changing flights at Frankfurt airport. Connecting flight
got delayed by fourteen hours. Unfortunately the shoulder strap of
my carry bag broke. Carrying it with short handles was too painful.
So I had to carry it like you would carry a child. Soon I discovered
that one of the pickle jars inside the box was leaking. So I had
to keep the bad absolutely at 90 degrees. One degree tilt, one degree
leakage.

With in those fourteen hours I had to take a temp visa, do shopping,
use the lu, take bath, eat breakfast, eat lunch, have german beer.
I had to carry that bag everywhere. Hour by hour that bag grew
heavier and heavier. At the end of fourteenth hour, I hated that
bag so much that that incident got burned deep into my cerebrum.

I am sure everyone of us must have gone through that painful
experience. Volunteering to carry the backpack at a picnic,
vacation and soon finding that the bag is heavier than you
imagined. Hour by hour, the pain grows. Minute by minute,
it adds pressure.

Now imagine carrying something, not on the back (which actually
is more comfortable), but in your stomach, for n i n e l o n g
months.

If you can imagine that, you can understand a mom.

She discovers it during her third month. Soon the physical changes
set in. Minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, it slowly
gets bigger and bigger for six months altering and destroying
everything about her and everything that is her.

Mood swings, sexual activities, physical activities, eating habits,
sleeping habits, periods, career, home, friends, financial matters,
almost everything has to be altered and adjusted to accomodate
the change.

It finally gets to a point when you begin to wonder how any one
can push such a big thing through such a small vent. You would
actually begin to wonder and question the design of evolution.

She endures, miraculously delivers and starts a new life.

If you can imagine that you can understand a mom.

Now replace that backpack in your imagination with a fishbowl
filled with water to the brim. Imagine carrying that fragile
thing everywhere. Imagine a game in which all the rules are rigged
in the favour of that little fish. Imagine carrying the bowl
everywhere, feeding it hour by hour, cleaning it hour by hour,
making sure it doesnt get contaminated hour by hour, making sure
the water doesnt spill. One spill, one virus and one missed hour,
you loose the game. And sorry, its a 24/7 game. No taking rest.

Not only you have to live through it, endure it, but also you
have to 'love' it, unconditionally. This is just level one.
With a year you get to level two. Where you will have two small
fish in the bowl and new dynamics to deal with.

Now throw in few more opponents like, burden of a running a house,
husband, career, shape etc. It is like 'Enter the Matrix'. There
is no return.

If you can imagine that you can understand a mom.

For a working mom, it gets worse. For a working mom living abroad,
it gets still worse.

This miracle of life happens right in front of our eyes and we
ignore the marvel of it. We dont take time to grasp the magnanimity
of it.

Human history has recorded the stories of brave, endurance,
strength, courage, love , passion, lust, intelligence, genius and
thought of men very well. It failed to record the flip side that
silently supported men and their freedom.

Moms amaze us with their endless patience and love. They actually
make it look easier. Men dont like to acknowledge the burden of
pregnancy and raising a child in a modern society.

A mom's love towards her child is almost divine to watch. It is
as graceful a lion's roar, a deer's leap and a cheetah's run.

I know one such mom who shows endless love to her child and cant
stop writing about him, actually nothing but about him. If you ever
visited her blog 'Never Been Better' you would feel her love to
her kid Rohan.

God blessed her again. She is pregnant again. (Stupid moms).

This post is dedicated with love to her. (This modern day warrior
disguised in a soft mask called 'mom').

Happy Birthday Babita. You are HBM's original sweetheart.
On your birthday our two shots of vodka is for you.