Mother | Care to Connect

...prologue terms, some of them are technical

Prologue: Guwahati 2011, June

 

…. the cell-phone beep-vibrated thrice in quick succession in the middle of an Operating Systems(OS) class as I attempted to divert the call on every incoming it made into my then Sony Ericson GPRS handset that just came in with its new Walkman model in the mobile market arena. It was back then some six years ago in 2011, during the Mid-June nasty summers while I was just into verge of closing the third semester of my engineering course.

 

And then soon, the bald fat professor of our department settled into the class, thrashed his classroom belongings on the desktop with a ‘yet another day at class panache’, while dusting off the desk-top with his big red “Abraham Silberschatz” OS book that we all have been knowing as the OS Bible since the subject came into existence.

 

Eventually the master preoccupied himself with his aged old paper-notes before presenting out the topic to the class and it seemed as if he was on a quick-rehearse mode.

 

While asking the class to pay attention, and at tandem, adjusting his trouser belt in frequent intervals’ he slowly chalked out the basic Byzantine Theorem to explain to us, accompanied with his evergreen hand-italicized bold fonts on that black dusty board.

 

By then, I was in an unceasing fix, or rather finding a chance as to how would I receive the call that kept vibrating inside the cushioned-bumped surface of my pockets.

 

Finally, my twiddling fingers gripped the phone embarking those daily-life college day belongings of a student in his early 20s, given that contents inside my shimmered trouser-pockets were mostly filled with canteen printed food-receipts, currency coins, pen-refills, cigarettes etcetera etcetera etcetera.

 

I could see my mother’s number flashing on the screen saying “Ma(Mom) Calling” as I partially inched out the screen from those pockets. The class was still continuing as the professor progressed with the theorem and had already chalked out a couple of deduction formulae on Byzantines till then. I was not at all there in the class as my notebook indicated the same, with not a single text penned on it yet, since the last 25 minutes of abrupt Byzantine going on!

 

I was curious to call her back and know what's happening there, such that all this while I continued to switch my pen refill on and off hitting on it's back-tip incessantly.

 

Sooner after the period ended and the professor walked out satisfied after pouring out his old notes yet again to the class for yet another semester!! Byzantine was over and I rushed out as swift as I could!

 

I quickly dialed her back whilst noticing 7 missed calls from her! It was one of those 'not a pleasant' feeling which then triggered while the call was connecting with pre-connection  network beeps that played as a background score tethering my urge to know more what's happened on the other end.

 

The phone rang and kept on ringing where the sweat on my shirt exponentially bubbled in, whilst convecting with the humid warmth of the June-summer college corridor!

 

And finally she received it after a continuing trail of around six ringtone replays!

 

Her voice palpitated in the cover of the 'hello' she did!

 

I asked her, what has happened, but could find her incapable of describing me the situation! This was the first time, I found out, my mother fears too, as since childhood I have never heard her voice so weak and helpless and we always had a notion that Ma has all the strength to suffice every peril that comes in!

 

Her palpitations continued and I could understand that her health has fallen down! I hung up the call and dialed in some local relatives and handy neighbors to reach her while I make it back to home!!

 

My college, like most other engineering colleges in the State, was located on a rural outskirt which was around 14 kilometres from home and getting a transport back to home at such an odd afternoon hour can be horrific if it's summer, given that summers in Guwahati has always been this terrible over the years I used to live there, but yeah winters in Guwahati is meant for 'Aashiqui' kind of romance!! Lol!!

 

Well coming back to specifics again, I rushed out of the college without even having the permission of anyone, as the scene demanded hasty moves!

 

One of my desk best friends at college pulled me home on his newly bought two wheeler Pulsar and he was more than eager to help me out, a help which I can never give back to him.

 

As I passed forth the university campus with his bike speeding up across roads and changing paths, the mind played a unconditional thought jigsaw with me, as only bad thoughts reiterated my mind, as to what would I see going back home, I believe this happens with most of us, like when you are remote and your closed one is in trouble, you start thinking the negative aspects more than the positive ones till you reach them and that's perhaps called Care, I believe.

 

Finally, as I reached home, I could see her almost fainting! I was trembled to arrange any help in the first place as this was the first time in my life where I independently had to arrange all the medical help that would finally land her in an hospital!

 

Believe me, arranging medical help, calling in the right numbers for ambulance, enquiring with the consultant doctor while seeing your closed one scream in trouble is really one of the worst scenes a person plays in his life and he has no other option, but  to play the scene with precision and presence of mind as the first two hours of an emergency are always critical as they say in medical books!

 

And I played the role with wit and in the long run was successful  to manage a buzzing blue-lighted ambulance which made it even more pathetic, as the patient going inside the van was my Mother!

 

Next stop, she was admitted into a local super specialty hospital in the town, where we came to know her potassium levels were terribly down and that as a result was lowering her blood pressure as well! This was frightening for me for the first few days as we started to live in there while her treatment went on!

 

I shared the same hospital cabin with her as the only attendant available. The first two days were horrible for me, where random nurses and doctors on duty came in and out to check her up, pushing her with unknown genre of injections!

 

I could see the pain that showed on her eye brows while they injected her veins! It's difficult to see such a strong lady and that too your own mother on a hospital bed fighting everyday to heal up soon!

 

Monologue: Present Day, Kolkata 2017, May

 

I have seen it many a times that when mothers get ill in a household, they try to heal themselves up as quickly as they can, and no different was my mother during those days! And that's why perhaps they are called Mothers, or more precisely givers!

 

There are so many things to write up about a mother rather than bringing in selfies with her on Mother's Day and flanking them on social network! Why not rather write about Mother?

 

But believe me it's tough to jot down everything about a mother, it's tough to describe your own source of existence, and that's why perhaps we only know a few Bollywood Songs which at-least helps us to describe our mother on special occasions like Mother's Day! 

 

Thanks to Aamir Khan in this case for giving us Taare Zameen Par as a brief guide to motherhood and the conjugated internal feelings that all children have for their mothers, but few are able to write them and so am I.

 

It's not possible to completely describe your feelings for your mother, and the funny side is, this is where the role of selfies come in nowadays to encapsulate and console all our feelings towards our mother into a social network nutshell!

 

However, by God's grace, my mother recovered from her suspected deficiencies within a fortnight. But I still hate the medicinal pungent odor of that hospital corridor even today!

 

She is a strong lady, I know that! She likes to fight back and win the card every time and I have been seeing that since my childhood!

 

I miss my childhood memories with her, her cuddles to me on my useless baby gestures, her thrashings to me when I refused to bath so that I could play cricket all day long, her slicing out of the last piece of cake every single time just for me when I returned from school, well and what not!

Every morning before I left for school, she used to comb my undone hairs right after my bath, such that her fists caressed my chin tightly while she did that to me like the local Saloon guy!!!! Lol!

She used to tie my miniature shoe laces with perfection every single time, such that she made sure that the shoe knots look exactly ovalish and disciplined while I go to school, where her perfection was multiplied due to the fact that my school was a English Medium School where discipline comes as a trivial bonafide as soon as a child gets admitted there!!!!

 

And since then times have passed, lot of things have changed for good, I started up my first job and then second and eventually started to get the 'laid back feel' like every other employee on reaching their late twenties, Lol!!

 

But one thing that remained unconditionally constant with me is my Mother! She has been the solution to all my problems, both silly and serious ones! Even today like any other kid, I still believe that my mother has a magic wand to solve almost every problem that arises in the Universe!

 

 

EPILOGUE

But now after all these years, we have all grown up and as we see our parents growing old by the day, it feels strangely pathetic! I hope every son or daughter feels such, right !

 

But trust me, the unconditional mother, the strong pillar by your side is still ageless and would never get old! Yes she is your mother!! Exclamatory Period!

 

However  the good tech thing that happened over all these years is that she has learnt YouTube browsing and at tandem knows how to text me whatsapp messages and also sincerely understands the 'Last Seen function' over whats-app, given that she has recently started to enquire me about my 'whats-app Last Seen Activity' if I did not find a chance to reply her message back, where, sometimes her whats-app messages have all the words misplaced when she asks me for something, but I understand 'em all in the first  place, without brainstorming even a little bit, and that is perhaps called Motherly Connection, right

 

In-fact, on a tech note, I like it more when people in their fifties and counting understand the tech side of this generation and interestingly mingle  themselves up to use these new-age tech mobile apps too, given that some of them master it so aptly that you cannot just bypass any of their questions on a mobile app just like that!

 

The thing is they understand the new us and we need to understand that, the more sooner, the more better!

 

Finally, as rhetoric it may sound now, please read aloud the following phrase, it will definitely put a confident smile on your face and soul as I believe and hope, every son, daughter believes the same as I do, oh yeah, here goes the serious rhetorical statement-

 

And each day if you are living with your mother, please let us celebrate Mother's Day, as the term "Mother/Matre/Ma/Aai/Madre/Mamma/Amma/Mueter/Morsa" , whatever you call her, is harmonically ageless since the time she delivered you!

A mother is always a hero 

Happy Mother's Day.

 

 

LittleWriter

 

Kolkata 19 May 2017

Author's Note

Happy Mother's Day