Its my mother - in - law's birthday today and one of the things I want to gift her is to let her know how she has transformed 'me' into a better 'me' than I was, to a great extent. Things I paid no heed to when my mother tried them on me, my mom - in law successfully got through to my system. Its a typical case of that kid who doesn't eat/ drink something at home and you go around telling the world about it, and when someone else tries to give you those things, you happily gobble away, embarrassing your poor mom to shame! (:D) Hang on - it wasn't as easy as it sounds from the previous sentence. More like a million miles away from easy! As you may have guessed by now, the things that my mom - in - law got into my system, for starters (no pun intended when I say 'starters'), include food!
The story goes like this. My mom had spent a good 25 years of her life trying to make me put on weight. I was so thin that she would go to see astrologers seeking answers to when I would finally start looking like a 25 year old female human walking around (instead of a hanger with clothes on, magically floating in air)!! I remember one of those several times distinctly. The astrologer stared at my face for a few minutes, then held my very thin wrist, then stared at my face again , then held my wrist again, mumbling something about how thin it was, and finally went through my paperwork that had information regarding my date, place and time of birth. When he resurfaced from the pile of papers he was scribbling on, doing the 'math' about when I would finally put on weight, he popped his head up with a very evident 'Eureka!!' look and said (in Kashmiri), 'Gassinas khander.....ye banye aalephyantt hishh!!' If you're not Kashmiri or a non - Kashmiri speaking Kashmiri, that more or less translates to, 'Let her get married...she will become (fat) like an elephant'. If you happen to speak Kashmiri and understood that as you read it, the joke's over! Stop laughing now and keep reading on! (:D) No prizes for guessing that what that Kashmiri astrologer predicted several years ago, turned out to be true a few years down the line.
After getting married, when I used to sit on my chair at the beautifully the laid out table, alongwith everyone else (including the food), I would give the food a very, 'Emmm....Will I be eating you or will YOU BE EATING ME!!' look. You see with my mom, I could just tell her, well, I'm not that hungry. Well, I'm not eating this & I'm not eating that! If she tried to force me I would remind how we live in a democracy and how eating as much as I want is my fundamental right (or perhaps just listen to an earful from her and carry on with my very tiny portions! :D). I tried the same thing with my mom - in - law and guess what - it didn't work! It seems she had tackled her daughter and my now lovely sister with the same eating challenge and had succeeded! She was a master of the game - I didn't know I was dealing with a professional here. I kept doing what I did, and she kept doing what she had to until one day! That day when I jumped onto the weighing machine and my eyeballs nearly popped out on seeing what I saw!! For nearly half an hour I kept checking the weighing machine for faults and made my entire family check their weight on it to confirm it was working fine. You will not believe what I saw - she had done the impossible!! I was 10 kgs heavier within one year of being married and being fed by mommy - in - law. I don't know about myself, but my mom is ever so thankful to her for achieving so gracefully what she did while she had spent 25 years and had given up trying! It was my mom's dream come true!!
Over these four years of officially being her daughter, and nearly 6 years of knowing the wonderful person that she is, there are several lessons she's taught me and some of which I have internalised. As for the rest ( which include learning to cook) I still am working on (I couldn't cook to save my life!).
Today I would like to share with you, 7 lessons mummy (as I fondly call her) has always taught me:
1) No matter how bad someone's been to you, forgive them . However, don't forget what you went through completely, because if you do, you might end up repeating the same mistake again. That would be stupid of you!
2) Nothing in the world is more important than your family. When your family needs you, anything and everything else in life can be paused. (Except for Saavdhan India which is her favourite crime awareness programme! She will get all the bad guys one day and beat them blue I tell u! :D)
3) Never ever go after shallow, materialistic things. In the end all that matters is the number of loving and truly caring people in your life. It's no good to have all the wealth in the world and no one to call your own and share it with and be miserable. Instead, focus on giving love in abundance and everything else will fall into place and you will always remain happy.
4) Always take blessings from your elders try to never hurt them intentionally. The blessings they give you will protect you during challenging times in life, no matter how difficult they are.
5) What you do and how you act reflects what your parents have taught you and the values you've been brought up with. Always think about this before reacting to any situation.
6) Bringing someone who has grown up in another family into yours is like grafting the branch of one tree onto a completely different one. You need to keep working at that branch for years to fully incorporate her vascular tissue into your own family's (How true - this is my favourite one).
7) Be ever so grateful for all the small mercies. God watches over you and showers more such mercies in abundance if you are.
Mummy is truly one of the strongest people I have ever known. Her mental strength astonishes me each time. I could write on and on and on about her but I guess I will end this post here for now with a, "*touchwood* how lucky am I to have her in my life!".
To the worlds most superb mommy - Happy birthday! :)
The story goes like this. My mom had spent a good 25 years of her life trying to make me put on weight. I was so thin that she would go to see astrologers seeking answers to when I would finally start looking like a 25 year old female human walking around (instead of a hanger with clothes on, magically floating in air)!! I remember one of those several times distinctly. The astrologer stared at my face for a few minutes, then held my very thin wrist, then stared at my face again , then held my wrist again, mumbling something about how thin it was, and finally went through my paperwork that had information regarding my date, place and time of birth. When he resurfaced from the pile of papers he was scribbling on, doing the 'math' about when I would finally put on weight, he popped his head up with a very evident 'Eureka!!' look and said (in Kashmiri), 'Gassinas khander.....ye banye aalephyantt hishh!!' If you're not Kashmiri or a non - Kashmiri speaking Kashmiri, that more or less translates to, 'Let her get married...she will become (fat) like an elephant'. If you happen to speak Kashmiri and understood that as you read it, the joke's over! Stop laughing now and keep reading on! (:D) No prizes for guessing that what that Kashmiri astrologer predicted several years ago, turned out to be true a few years down the line.
After getting married, when I used to sit on my chair at the beautifully the laid out table, alongwith everyone else (including the food), I would give the food a very, 'Emmm....Will I be eating you or will YOU BE EATING ME!!' look. You see with my mom, I could just tell her, well, I'm not that hungry. Well, I'm not eating this & I'm not eating that! If she tried to force me I would remind how we live in a democracy and how eating as much as I want is my fundamental right (or perhaps just listen to an earful from her and carry on with my very tiny portions! :D). I tried the same thing with my mom - in - law and guess what - it didn't work! It seems she had tackled her daughter and my now lovely sister with the same eating challenge and had succeeded! She was a master of the game - I didn't know I was dealing with a professional here. I kept doing what I did, and she kept doing what she had to until one day! That day when I jumped onto the weighing machine and my eyeballs nearly popped out on seeing what I saw!! For nearly half an hour I kept checking the weighing machine for faults and made my entire family check their weight on it to confirm it was working fine. You will not believe what I saw - she had done the impossible!! I was 10 kgs heavier within one year of being married and being fed by mommy - in - law. I don't know about myself, but my mom is ever so thankful to her for achieving so gracefully what she did while she had spent 25 years and had given up trying! It was my mom's dream come true!!
Over these four years of officially being her daughter, and nearly 6 years of knowing the wonderful person that she is, there are several lessons she's taught me and some of which I have internalised. As for the rest ( which include learning to cook) I still am working on (I couldn't cook to save my life!).
Today I would like to share with you, 7 lessons mummy (as I fondly call her) has always taught me:
1) No matter how bad someone's been to you, forgive them . However, don't forget what you went through completely, because if you do, you might end up repeating the same mistake again. That would be stupid of you!
2) Nothing in the world is more important than your family. When your family needs you, anything and everything else in life can be paused. (Except for Saavdhan India which is her favourite crime awareness programme! She will get all the bad guys one day and beat them blue I tell u! :D)
3) Never ever go after shallow, materialistic things. In the end all that matters is the number of loving and truly caring people in your life. It's no good to have all the wealth in the world and no one to call your own and share it with and be miserable. Instead, focus on giving love in abundance and everything else will fall into place and you will always remain happy.
4) Always take blessings from your elders try to never hurt them intentionally. The blessings they give you will protect you during challenging times in life, no matter how difficult they are.
5) What you do and how you act reflects what your parents have taught you and the values you've been brought up with. Always think about this before reacting to any situation.
6) Bringing someone who has grown up in another family into yours is like grafting the branch of one tree onto a completely different one. You need to keep working at that branch for years to fully incorporate her vascular tissue into your own family's (How true - this is my favourite one).
7) Be ever so grateful for all the small mercies. God watches over you and showers more such mercies in abundance if you are.
Mummy is truly one of the strongest people I have ever known. Her mental strength astonishes me each time. I could write on and on and on about her but I guess I will end this post here for now with a, "*touchwood* how lucky am I to have her in my life!".
To the worlds most superb mommy - Happy birthday! :)
2 comments:
Had tears in my eyes misha
We both(me and your Mom)agree to what you have written in the post. I am proud of you my child.You deserve all praise from both of us.
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