The child and the debt it owes its mother

One of my mother’s favourite stories was of the man who stands outside his house and looking up at the sky declares, “Ma, I have now repaid all that I owed you”. As he does so the house collapses. My mother’s moral was: a child will always be indebted to its mother.

My mother died four years ago at the age of 94 and I have never forgotten that story. And as I grow older I begin to realise how much my mother shaped my life. True, she did not take any interest in my education, my father decided all that. In the immediate years after Indian independence when many shunned English he made sure I went to an English school. He helped me develop my love for sport, encouraged me to read and got me to copy from copper plated writing to improve my handwriting. And before my exams he made sure I had everything ready down to pen and ink.