This beautiful tribute to a single mom who braved huge odds to educate her daughter and raise her to become feminist – we guarantee, it will make you cry.
A few days back, I was standing at the kitchen, cleaning the counter with a sponge wipe and crying my eyes out. My husband, who was carrying the dirty dishes to the sink, noticed my tears and he came and held me.
‘You’re worried?’ He took me in his arms.
With one hand still holding the dirty wipe, I kept my head on his chest and let out one of the loudest wails from the depths of my soul. I don’t remember the last time I cried so hard. Even our dog, Woof, got worried that maybe my husband was hurting me in some way and he started growling at him. We had to pull Woof in between us to assure him that we weren’t fighting.
I won’t forget this tender moment for a long, long time, just like I won’t forget the reason that made me feel so raw and vulnerable.
My mother had been seriously ill with a lot of ailments but what was more worrying was that the doctors couldn’t figure out exactly what was wrong with her even after she’d been hospitalized for more than a week and even after she’d been tested for all possible diseases. I was in Delhi where I live with my husband while my mother was in Kolkata with my brother.
That night while I wiped the kitchen counter, the memories of my mother flooded my senses. It was as if loneliness was a living, breathing creature which made its solid presence felt inside my chest when I imagined a world without her.