Let go!

“Bye Mom!” Riya called. She doesn’t get any reply. She didn’t expect it though. Not this soon! But she said it anyway, as she was leaving for her work. She works in a private firm under Human Resources Department.

It’s been a month she last talked to her mother. Well, let me rephrase it. It’s been a month that her mother last talked to her. Why? The reason is so typical of an Indian Mother. She wanted her daughter to get married soon. And Riya wasn’t ready for it. As in, she’s never ready for a marriage. It’s been only Riya and her mother who made their little-family since she was 10. She doesn’t want to hurt her mother in any way. She did every possible thing to make her mother proud. And trust me; making her proud isn’t an easy task. Every Indian mother is so stubborn with their rules when it comes down to their children’s life. Given that Riya was a Girl and she was the only daughter of this only mother, the expectations had really high bench marks. Yeah, they were all for Riya’s well being. Of course!

But then, Riya never wanted to get married. She considered “To get married is to get Trapped”. Most Indian marriages (any marriage, for that matter) will tell you so. And she doesn’t want to get trapped in a virtual cage for her whole life. And the worst part is no one sees it that way; they just accept it as granted.

She wanted to be free. She doesn’t want that kind of idiotic-morale-fate to change her course. And if – by any mere chance – time has different plans, she would tackle when it happens. But no! Now is not the time. She tried explaining this to her mother. But she wouldn’t understand. Or she couldn’t take in something, which is against her (typical) morale. As a result, she did what mothers-always-do. A sentimental attack!

She said, “I’m not going to talk to you Riya. Keep your rubbish talks with yourself. And don’t call me Mom one more time”. Hmm…Riya was prepared for that. Both were stubborn. And the silent-war started its reign.

And meanwhile, about six months back, Riya published her debut book, “To let go is to Love”. Though she gets paid well in her usual job, Writing is her passion. And that’s her first try. The response for her debut book was good, given the loads of Romance-fiction books in the market. Mmm, she was motivated there!

I got a reason to mention this, here. Riya’s mother is a typical Indian woman, as we now know. She has studied only up to 9^th grade. And that too in her native language as a medium. She had this dream when she was…um…a teenager. She wanted to learn and speak in multiple languages. The village, in which she had been living then, was an historical place. So, tourists are common there. All those foreign people she had seen; she always wanted to talk to them…just to know how their place and lifestyle was. She admired them silently. Their freedom, their way of living…every aspect of their life that she had witnessed.

You see, she never got to fulfill her childish dream. Life throws steep turns, sometimes. Trick is that, you don’t even realize that you’re falling until you hit your head hard against something! And here, without her even realizing, there she was, in this wide and large world with a ten-year-old to take care of - ALONE!

And as it got impossible to fulfill her own dreams, she fed them to her daughter. And Riya was witty enough. She shone in everything she did. Riya’s mother felt proud of her daughter. She felt herself living those moments with Riya. She saw her dreams come alive through her.

As Riya published her debut book, her mother was so proud. But Riya’s mother couldn’t read it herself. She couldn’t bring herself to ask her daughter to narrate it too. She wanted to surprise Riya, by quoting back her lines. She thought, “I should understand it myself. That would be the right gift for my girl”. And so she started to learn English. It was tough for her. Agreed. When Riya leaves for work, she would take the book, a notebook, pen and then English-Tamil Dictionary. She would translate word-by-word and note it down. It was a tedious work and the translation was clumsy too. But she kept trying.

“

Giving up is never even a least option for Mothers in terms of their children! Is it?

“

Though they weren’t talking now, she just couldn’t give up on her daughter. Mothers are always like that.

She still had few pages to go, now.

A few days later, (of course, after Riya left for work) the translating work was done. And she started to read it from the very first word. She kept reading.

That was a love story. The love story which spilled pure emotions in every word. And the love story which didn’t have a happy ending. At least, not the happy ending that most would expect – the union of hero and heroine! But the sole theme story can be consolidated in a few words. And that reminds me of my favorite dialogue in the Hindi movie “PK” – “He loved me enough to let me go!”

Yes, Riya concluded with – “To love is to not let go? No, I say, To love truly is to let go. As free as wind! Caging a person isn’t the translation of Love. True love should be the one generous enough to LET YOU GO and give the freedom everything ever seeks”.

As Riya’s mom decrypted that in her own way, she couldn’t help but think of herself and what she has been doing to her daughter. All she ever wanted was Riya to be happy. She didn’t want her daughter to be as alone as she was left. She herself longed for that pure love. But it never stayed an eternity for her. But putting in the way as Riya did, she saw what she had been doing. She had been caging her!

Oh, she’s a Mother and hence the definition of Love. How could she not let go of Riya in her own way now?! And so she did!

But I still hope that Riya would find the LOVE of her life which is true enough to let her go in her own way and may even walk beside her; truer enough to make her fall; which doesn’t cage her; which wins her. For all of them! After all, this is Earth we’re living in…the source of love and care. Wouldn’t she offer one to Riya?!

Wishing,
---Sp---