Mother India

My earliest memories date back to sometime before Indian Independence or sometime right after that. Those were the times when humans and nature co-existed, how do I put it, eco-tourism at its best. Rural life was close to a fascinating wild life safari, at least for me, if not for my overworked mother, “Bou” as we used to call her, who had to protect our cattle from the nearby predators.

There is one instance which I remember very clearly. My father, a freedom fighter was not much of a domestic person; his interest in household issues was minimal, which caused a lot of grief to my mother. In a poverty stricken pre-independence Assam, Bou tried to make ends meet while taking care of five growing children, cattle, farmers and more importantly food for everyone. Also, before I forget to mention, our neighborhood was infested by panthers, the real ones. Protecting our cattle from these troublemakers was a nerve wrecking task for us.

One night, Bou was washing the dishes in our backyard. (Back then ladies had to clean utensils with ashes and coconut peels. There was no sink, no water supply, they would simply sit with loads of huge utensils by the well and work on them till they shine).So where were we? Ah ok, Bou with her dishes, yes, so she was doing the dishes and we were probably sitting by a mild fire nearby. As usual, she was stressed out with the daily chores and quite upset about something; we tried our best to avoid bothering her and kept ourselves at a distance from her.

My siblings and I were immersed in a conversation, when we felt that something had moved behind the cattle’s barn-Guhali, as we would call it. Suspicion and an unexplained fear of death took over us kids. Suddenly, something growled loudly from behind the Guhali and before we knew, it made a huge leap towards Bou. Bou, who was completely, oblivious to this entire thing, was taken by surprise, when the panther nearly pounced on her. She didn’t realize it was a larger cousin of the backyard kitty. Upset, as she already was, she picked up a vessel and started hitting the panther left and right. The panther, probably never expected to get bashed by a utensil, of all things. It tried to save its last bit of dignity by growling and attempting to pounce on Bou. But Bou, true in her Maa Durga avatar, was not going to be easily defeated. She probably even yelled and accused the beast for all her domestic distress, she said something like, I am already in so much trouble and I wont take S*&% from you now. The panther, realizing the meticulous threat to its life had to make a quick decision. IT JUST FLED!

We of course, just stood there watching, too petrified to react. We were not sure whether to applaud Bou for her courage to or fear her rage. “Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned”, I told myself and pledged never to anger my mother. Years later, looking back at the incident, I made up my mind. More than her rage, it was her courage that needed to be lauded, not just for her courage to defend her family from a ferocious panther; but for her courage to protect her own from all dangers, save them against all odds, and raise them to be good human beings. In the true sense of the phrase, she was indeed, “Mother India”!