Ten Years…
Two strangers get introduced
Formally;
Knowing you, knowing me.
Two families meet
In agreement;
Uniting him, uniting her.
Ten years….
We recall the journey
Of acceptance, adjustments
And selflessness in
Loving you, loving me.
Category: Relationship
Sand Trails…
Trailing along quietly
The sand followed me home
From the seashore to the building.
Dropping grains wherever I stepped;
Creating mounds where slippers fell;
Appearing dusty in the clatter,
The cutters of the modern house.
Took many days to clean wipe,
Traces erased to clear perfection.
Yet glitters from the corners;
The sand lives along silently.
Who Gives Birth to Whom?
“A child gives birth to a mother.” The quote runs below a public work of art on the way along side the western express highway in Mumbai. A prized location, the sculpture of the mother-and-child stands tall, seemingly linking the roads to Mahim, Bandra and Worli-sea link.
It is hard to miss, especially if you are on a religious trip to visit the famed Siddhivinayak temple (Lord Ganesha) at Prabha Devi , St. Michael’s church in Mahim, and the Durgah of Mahimi in Mahim. Each of these places is historically relevant. For instance, while the church is one of the oldest existing Portuguese buildings, the Makhdoom Ali Mahimi’s Durgah is a reminder of the great Sufi saint and scholar who was also the “first commentator of the Holy Quran in India”.
Coming back to the mother-and-child sculpture, I happened to take a sparing look at it once, when stuck at the traffic signal. Appearing to be of a mother holding up her child, the metal sculpture is devoid of any distinct features or facial expressions. Yet, surrounded by the bed of greens, the mother and child cut a happy picture of the nurturer and the nourished.
A few minutes distraction from the traffic snarl, the sculpture and the quote, “A child gives birth to a mother”, kindled my mind. Mother and child – who gives birth to whom? Undoubtedly, each gives birth to the other. Undoubtedly, the mother and child relationship rooting to birth can be correlated to the relationship of a creator and his creativity. Nevertheless, it takes the creativity to give a name to the creator, and a purpose of life.
Wonder, what could have been the mind-set behind its creation and its location? The sculpture of mother-and-child will withstand the years to come. Like the many curious onlookers, I may perceive the duo in a different light, on another occasion, a different day.
Siblings
Where do all the years of growing up together go? Why siblings become strangers with time? The gulf widens never to be united. They part ways. Relationship? What is it? They ask. Their ego’s decide not to mend their ways; and they die silently, wishing things would have been otherwise.
The next generation, devoted to their parents, hold on to the grudge. They being young, may have attempted or wished to bring a reunion but are reprimanded. Often, “you are a child, and you don’t know anything,” with these convenient words, the parents convince them. Ergo, the children follow their parent’s path. Years go by unhindered. The matters of heart lie uncorrected. The blood ties move into complete strangers.
Their families may never be able to erase the ‘good times of togetherness’ but at the same time may end up not knowing their immediate cousins too well. Somewhere down the line, the third generation may even laugh at the silly matters complicated beyond repair.
The siblings are no more around. Their children have reasons to unite. Some mend the broken relationships. But some others hold on to the reason of “having no wish to hurt the sentiments of their dead parent/s”. Days of beautiful relationships are gone. Whose loss is it?
Wonder, when siblings grow up, why do they not wish to take up hurt feelings and fight it out as they had done in their childhood?
Let their souls rest in peace.
Variety is the Spice of Life 