Agnetha
It was in 1960’s when Achilles Kleanthis, a cottage cheese producer/merchant of Attica found his goddess in the down valley of Mount Aegaleo. Yes Agnetha was no less than a Greek goddess in her 20s, when Achilles met her for the first time. Though Agnetha, born to a grapes’ farmer did not had any great geneology to claim, Achilles decided to marry her and he gave a diamond necklace on their wedding day. She fulfilled her responsibilities as queen, they traveled across the globe, enjoyed all the good things in life. She had 5 children from Achilles; 3 daughters and 2 sons. Time moved on, the world around her changed. Achilles had a habit of spending money on betting in horse races; in due course, he lost all his money and business because of this. His eldest son followed his father’s path and died in an accident learning horse riding. Whatever money and assets Achilles had, he divided and left it to his children in his will. He expected his children to take care of their mother and hence didn’t leave anything to her. Agnetha is now in her old age, taken care of by her youngest daughter Alena. Alena has her own limitations. She needs to do what her husband dictates. Agnetha has nothing with her except a diamond necklace, probably the only reason Alena’s husband allows her to live in their house. Agnetha has approached her other daughters several times – but they have their own reasons for not keeping her with them. Some of them are genuine reasons.
Here is a Greek mother who once a lived like a queen, now counting her days, living like a servant in her own daughter’s house.
Laxmi
While Agnetha was feeding cattle in the valley of Mount Aegaleo, Laxmi was performing her teaching duty in the small village of Chidambaram in the southern state of India. Her husband Kuppuswamy was a temple priest and a servant of lord Vishnu. They lived in their ancestor’s house inherited from Swamy’s father with two children, a girl Thangam and a boy Mohan. Thangam got married to Raja, who works in Central reserve Police and lives in the north. Mohan, who was very good at his studies, completed his management studies from IIM Bangalore and now works for a banking giant in the USA. Swamy decided to give his house to Mohan; this is when Mohan suggested building a new house. Swamy sold his old house to raise some capital to help Mohan to buy some land for their new house. Laxmi and Swamy always wanted Mohan to get married to Laxmi’s brother’s daughter Meenakshi. Their dream was shattered when Mohan arrived home from US with Karla, his Danish wife. Swamy could not bear it and asked him to leave home. Mohan felt insulted and left. That is the last time he visited his Indian home. He lives in Florida with his Danish wife and son Varun. After this incident, Mohan stopped interacting with his parents even on the phone. The house construction was left half way and Mohan has no interest now to continue or return back to India. During construction, Swamy and Laxmi had moved into the new half-built house. The old couple expected time to cure relationships and waited for their son to return. Swamy once wrote a letter to his son that they are ready to accept Karla. They never got a reply. Swamy was not sure if Mohan intentionally did not reply or if the letter never reached. In due course, Swamy passed away leaving Laxmi in the half-constructed house. She is now 73 years old, lives alone in this house, and gets a small pension from the temple trust for all Swamy’s good service. Each and every corner is stamped with misery and poverty. The only help Laxmi has is from a childhood friend living nearby.
Here is an Indian Mother, who has given nothing except love to her children all her life; but has nobody to take care of in her old age; she is not living, she just exists.
Rabeeha
Latakia is a small city on the western coast of Syria that touches the Mediterranean. Ahamed was a poor middle class fisherman. He went out to the sea to catch fishes and sold them in the local market for a living. His house and the small boat were the only assets that Ahamed had. In spite of having a large family (7 children, wife, mother and mother-in-law), he lived very happily with whatever he earnt. He always lived for the day; whatever he earned in the day would be spent on the family by night. Almighty was always kind to him, and always gave him a good catch of fish. In this house there were two mothers, his mother Rabeeha and his mother-in-law Haseena. If you discounted her night blindness, Rabeeha was a very healthy and enthusiastic lady. She would do all house work, take care of the children, and Haseena. Haseena was bed ridden for a long period of 17 years till she passed away. Yesterday evening Ejaz (Ahamed’s eldest son) got a call from his mother informing him that Rabeeha has passed away. Ejaz was surprised to hear that he was not asked to come back to Syria for the last rituals. There was always a friction between Rabeeha and his mother, but he never knew that the problem ran so deep that he was not even called before they buried his grandmother.
Ejaz questioned his mother and the story that his mother told was really surprising. “Son, no doubt you consider her your grandmother. But she is not your grandmother, so you are not required here for the last rituals.”. Ejaz was puzzled. His mother continued the story. “Rabeeha is not your real grandmother; your father was not born of her. Some years back, when you were a very small child, while your father was winding up his fish stall and leaving the market in the afternoon, he could see a lady sitting in a corner and crying. She was whispering ‘Ahamed’, ‘Ahamed’. Ahamed went closer to see who it was. He asked her what the matter was. She replied that her son had left her in the market and went to get some water for her. She had been waiting for him for a long time, but he hadn’t returned. Now she did not know how to go back to home nor nor did she know the address. All she knew was her son’s name – Ahamed. It was late in the evening and was raining. Ahamed found out that she was blind as well. So your father brought her home. We tried hard to find her real son, but could not, and thus she became part of our family”. Ejaz was overcome with mixed emotions and had nothing to say. He was in tears. He said “Ammi, I am flying back tonight, just to meet my father, the man who has the biggest heart on the earth. He has taken care of a mother for 2 decades, one who is not even related to him by blood, in this era where people desert their own parents.”
Having read all three stories, which mother/father would you want to be in your old age? In which of the above scenarios would you want to see your parents? Decision and Actions are both yours, I am just a messenger. My answers to the above question is ‘I should do all that to my parents, which I want my children to do for me in my old age’.
This was originally posted in my blog-spot account (http://sadasivananu.blogspot.in/2014/08/three-mothers-where-do-you-want-to-see.html)
