Who is she?

This write up won the first prize at the Gitanjali “Special Woman in your life contest” organized by Gitanjali Jewelers this year beating more than 50,000 entries.


Who is she?

Once, when I was researching various professions that exist, I got huge list of them all, but not one listed “mom” as a profession. Then I realized, it was probably because she was all those professions rolled into one some time or the other and more which makes it so hard to define how special she is in a few words or lines. In my life she has played the role of:

Father who I lost a child,
A friend, a philosopher, a guide,
A light bulb changer,
A bottle opener (for those really tough bottles that wouldn’t budge),
A band aid for bruised knees and hurt egos,
Fought court cases alone far better than any lawyer,
A tower of strength against injustice meted out against her as a widow in the society,
A value system builder,
Took crucial decisions like a CEO despite not having an solid educational background,
a counselor, a problem solver from getting rid to imaginary monsters of her kids to getting civil work executed at home,
A HR manager for managing to keep good human relations despite all odds,
A sales and marketing manager when she had to persuade her kids to follow the right path,
Administration manager to run the house,
Technical and operations manager when there were glitches that comes with maintenance of a house,
A finance and accounts manager and
A home maker and chef, rolled into one,
Logistics and procurement manager from buying to using resources to make ends meet,
A teacher, a psychologist, an advisor, an actor and story teller to help forget the bad times and to eat the veggies,
A hope builder,
An auditor who looked at our mistakes and corrected them till we almost got ISO certificated for it,
A barber (for cutting my hair as a kid),
An analyst,
Home health aide,
Pest control worker (for driving away the cockroaches and lizards that used to make me scream in fright),
Probational officer for the times we overstepped the limits,
A detective who had eyes at the back of her head and knew exactly what the kids were up to,
To an all round nurse and doctor who stayed up, healed, nourished and held our hands through illnesses and more!! In short – SHE IS MOM!

Despite the generation gap, the fights and the complexities that go into every relationship, my mom is not just special in my life. She is my life.