What you learnt from your mother?

“Shyamchi Aai” translated by Shanta Gokhale from Marathi. These stories were once in the syllabus of schools in Maharashtra or still are. This book compiles short stories which are narrated by the author who describes his mother in it. The stories include how his mother (author’s) did everything to make him and his siblings capable and good human beings.

It is universally acknowledged that mothers are the highest and purest form of compassion, love, affection and what not… This compilation has shown how mothers actually are. They do everything to keep their families happy and in return expect nothing. The perfect example of altruistic behavior. There are many lessons in this book; self-respect, understanding one’s own worth and capacity, being honest, trying to help not only fellow humans but also every living organism, being independent, respect has to be earned, love and affection, self-control, contentment, discrimination (as this was originally written in Marathi during 1950’s), and the plight of women, etc.

Major characters are the narrator; the author himself, his mother and father, his siblings. The main limelight is on his mother and everything about her. He consider himself to be her favorite as in the last few chapters when his mother was on her death bed, she talked mainly about him to others (as the narrator was somewhere else for education). Those years were ruled by the ideologies of patriarchy but still his mother instilled the concept that no work is only meant for one gender, men can do woman’s work and women can do man’s work. There is a line “when feminity and masculinity merges, humanity emerges” which holds a lot of meaning.

Some of my favorite lines

“Because you are going to get money for it, then it is man’s work. And if you are not going to get paid for it, it is woman’s work”

“To me, being known around the world is not what makes human beings great. They become great when they consciously shed their flaws one by one and evolve into better human beings”

“Nothing in the world can be compared to the joy of stopping another’s tears, bringing smile to his lips and making happy”