In Trying Times This Number One Tip* From My Mother Helped Me Move Forward……
Let me take you all back in time to the year 1986. I have just started with my engineering course @ NIT and was in the hostel away from home. One fine morning I had my uncle unexpectedly coming all the way from my native place.
Those were also the days where we had no cellphones, and often even the land phone contact mode was not much available with the major option being the trunk calls to connect (which was resorted only in cases of extreme emergencies) and that too included a long wait.
We used to get letters from home and I was lucky to get one every week but was not getting it for some time and that was when my uncle landed up at my place, to pick me up, to take me to the hospital where my mother was admitted.
As I reached the hospital, I saw my mother, weak, semiconscious, and lying on the hospital bed. Several close relatives were around. Many were looking at me sympathetically…
Soon some relatives pulled me aside and told me that doctors treating her said my mother is very unwell, and that is how I was called in.
Once the crowd cleared, and we were together, my mother took all the strength that was left on her body and uttered....” Please go back to college…..I want to see you becoming an engineer “. She promised me even in that situation that she will be alright and told me in a firm voice *“You are stronger than you think,”* and asked me to focus on my studies.
It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.
Well, friends, my mother survived that lived long enough to see my son and passed away in the year 2006, on 13th January!.
She was very bold; Later, my elder brother would say that these are exactly the same words my mother told him in 1972 when we lost our father in a botched operation and also lost all the properties in a strange turn of events. (That is another story).
My mother back then decided that she would start working rather than relying on help from others. What mattered most to her was our education.
I learned to concentrate on my tasks despite all that was going on in my mind due to my mother’s deteriorating health. In an unconventional way, I learned the importance of self-discipline, accepting life’s difficulties, and above all, embracing the adventure called life!
Whenever I encounter trying times, I would utter these magical words(that single most important tip my mother gave me back then)..“You are stronger than you think,” And often I was blessed with insights that have taken me this far in life.
You can focus on things that are barriers or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem.
Thanks for reading!
Author’s Note:
Incidentally, today happened to be the day my mother passed away in the year 2006. 13 January 2006….“You are stronger than you think” is what comes to my mind whenever I think of my late mother. Some time back, I happened to pass by the place where my mother was laid to rest, which is far away from where we are currently put up. As I stood praying, immersed in my thoughts, my mind also drifted into a meditative state. In that stillness, I was observing my thoughts. Later I penned this poem as a dedication to her. I am not good at poetry,{sorry about that If this has not come out well}
Stopping by the place where my mother was laid to rest
I did think of all those great moments together.
And reassured me, I will do all that is possible to make her proud;
She might be watching me, to send angel guardians to safeguard me when needed.
What life she would have thought for me?
She was a very caring mother.
Did she know that I crossed many challenges?
Some of those she would have never thought that would come in my way!
And there many were laid to rest ..
But no other mortals around.
As I stood praying, immersed in my thoughts ….
Heard a slight murmuring sound the wind brought in that resembled my mother’s sound.
Was it that a figment of my imagination?
