The Tears of A Mother – Story by Anita Bacha

On 26 Novembre 2012 , I was attending the Conference on Child Welfare and Protection organized by The Hague in Dakar,Senegal.

A writer at heart, I was inspired to pen down this story

The Tears of A Mother

A very long time ago, before God invented the dictionary of words, he sat down and started to create the first human beings. In no time, he produced the writer, the doctor, the moderator, the builder, the vegetable seller, the beautician and many, many others. Last he set out to make the mother.

An angel, who was watching God at work, asked:

“Why do you keep the mother last on the list? She should be the first.”

God answered “It’s not going to be an easy task. For the mother, I have to make more than one pair of hands.”

“Why?” asked the curious angel.

“She needs many pairs of hands as she will have to roll the parathas, check the temperature of the kid who is down with fever, put the dirty linen in the washing machine, answer that phone call and check her email to know how her eldest son is doing abroad and all at the same time!”

“Oh!”

“That’s not all! She will need a few pairs of legs too, to rush to school to drop one kid, to take the other one to the dentist, to run to the market, to collect that parcel from the post-office and all at the same time!”

“She must also have an extra pair of eyes in her back to watch the kids when they are in their room and see that the roast is not burnt whilst she is peeling the potatoes. Her lap must be larger than the average to cradle more than one at a time” continued God “her voice must be hard enough to scold and sweet enough to console.”

“That’s all?” the angel wanted to know.

“She must not only be an example of virtue but she must also be endowed with a few defects – spoiling, smothering, overfeeding her child and doing his home work when he is falling asleep to name a few.”

“She is hard to the touch!” said the angel.

“But as soft as butter inside!” answered God.

“Oh! Oh! God! There is a defect in your manufacture” remarked the angel “look here, there is a leak – water is running down the cheeks.”

“The tears! Of course! This is how the mother expresses her joy, her grief, her relief, her disappointment, her happiness, her sorrow and all her innermost feelings. But mind you, I did not make the tears. No! Niet! Non! Nahin! She made the tears herself.”

Anita Bacha

Happy Reading, My Friends!