Mother’s Day special: Tribute to political moms

Now, here is an image:  a woman at 18 moving out of her comfort zone, leaving her parents behind in a small town of Uttar Pradesh to megacity Mumbai to make a life with her husband chosen by her parents. That’s her. My dad moved to Mumbai from Mathura to pursue his career as a Chartered Accountant. As a mother, she was so devoted that she had totally given up everything just to ensure her children were brought up well and got the education and encouragement they needed. The support I found in my mother as I took baby steps into my choice of career as early as I was 18 was at that point unthinkable. While everyone was against the idea of me working, I remember my mother and grandmother coming out strongly to support my choice. That support till date has been invaluable. The feedback from her, blunt and honest, in everything I do or say, my choices as a wife and a mother is unparalleled in terms of input. Read the full article here.

My mother, Usha, is the oldest of seven children in a Brahmin family where hierarchy and tradition get more TRP than in a Yash Chopra film. She can’t say no to anyone, unless it comes to her daughters, (there’s three of us, God bless us!) where the question of saying no doesn’t arise because she just turns a deaf ear to all traditions, all sanctimonious nonsense, or gossip if it’s about us. Girls dressed traditionally in our families, we wore shorts; girls didn’t work, we focused on our careers; all had arranged marriages, we chose our life partners; girls didn’t make any choices basically, while we three do not let anyone else choose for us, ever, and it is all because of her. Her family was one where untouchability was practiced during menstruation, but she is the gentle wind that let us soar such that no one could touch us. I grew up in a privileged world where my freedom was given to me by my mother as my birthright and was fiercely protected by her. Read the full article here.

When other parents were forcing their kids to opt for engineering or medicine, she told me that it was important that I chose something that would give me happiness and a sense of satisfaction. Medicine was her calling, it did not mean it had to be mine. But she was strongly against my getting into mainstream politics after my graduation.  In spite of her disapproval, she was the one who defended me every time somebody objected to my decision. There is so much that I am still learning about her, in the process of learning about my own self because every day I find myself turning a little more into her. Read the full article here.

PS: It is purely coincidental that all three politicians are women.