My Greatest Inspiration

Puranaghare

A person who is very important to someone in his/her life is not a simple one for him/her. Different persons regard different individuals as the significant person in their life. My mother is the most significant person in my life. My mom is very friendly, helpful, understanding and cooperative. Many different persons, who are my great well-wishers, and helpful supporters, are significant sources of inspiration and motivation in my life. To speak the truth, my beloved with whom I share my pathos, sentiments, feelings and experiences, has many significant contributions to me. My teachers, who have been burning themselves like a candle, showing the path to perfection through their lights, are very significant contributors in changing and developing my life. And my friends, whose writing and experiences are the bases of my writing experiences, are contributing greatly at present. All these are the achievements in my life. Who is the basic source of these achievements? Do I know? Who is the protagonist in the story of my life, contributing from behind? It is no doubt my mom. She gave me birth in this beautiful world, she raised me up with hardship, and she managed to send me to school, taught me about my community, cultural norms, societal values and life. She who is my friend, teacher, guide and philosopher is the most significant person in my life.

Until I was fourteen, I didn’t think of my mom as the significant person in my life. I used to hate her and I don’t remember why. But now, my mom is an inseparable person in my life. My mother is medium height, white – skinned and a bit fat woman of 50_s. She is very tolerable until she can’t bear it anymore. She speaks soft in her persuading words and motivating tone. She is very mighty in her slow reaction and bold actions. She hardly loses her temper, but if she loses it, then a female tiger appears in the scene. My mom is very dynamic in her treatment to her children. She has implanted various images in my mind. My memory has saved many loving and much hated pictures of my mother.

I heard about my birth when I was 15. My mom said that I was born in a cowshed in our maternal uncle’s house. “They had a big house and why did they welcome their grandchild in the cowshed?” I questioned my mom. She said that as per the Hindu culture, a daughter is not supposed to produce her child in the house of her parents. That is why I was born in a cowshed.  She had no option but going to the cowshed because we didn’t have any house at that time. I am proud of her because she managed to give me birth though she was a victim of poverty.

Later on, my parents worked hard and built a big three-storey house within some four years of my birth. Our house was nearby a forest in Bhutan. When I was 8, we had a big plot of farm land, a big herd of animals, and some children in the family. My Papa was a businessman and most of the time he used to be away from home. So, my mother had to shoulder the responsibility of taking care of our possessions in Bhutan.  I still remember her hard days full of responsibilities and duties that she was obliged to do.

Initially, I used to consider my mom as a living tiger in the family. Everybody in the family used to be afraid of mom but I was too young to know this secret. When I was a child, I was more pampered by my papa. So, mother was secondary to me at that time. Once I began my schooling, my mother started taking care of me. For a much pampered child like me, her love and devotion seemed inferior to control, so she even used to give some punishment. I was a bit obstinate in my childhood. Today, my mom says it was very risky for her to raise me until I was 14 years old. When I was just eight, we left Bhutan as the victims of political turmoil that was going on in Bhutan. While we stayed in the Bhutanese Refugee Camp, I spent my days in close touch with my mom. My early memory is full of her roaring and haunting gestures. Even today, sometimes she runs in my mind with a broom in her hand chasing me around the house. My brothers and sisters used to get a lot of punishment from her. When I was in junior high school, I was addicted to playing carom and football. As soon as I came home from school, I used to head out to continue with one of the two addictions. I was stubborn at that time and her words of love seemed very fragile to build good character and habits in me. One day, while I was playing carom with my friends, she came running with a broom in her hand and started beating. That day, she kept hitting me until I promised not to repeat it again. I could hardly bear her enormous blow which she gave me the first time in my life. After that, I completely stopped going out after school but I was in hypertension for months. There were no signs of betterment on my part. Slowly, all of my friends started jeering at me. That year, I couldn’t dedicate to my studies and my grades in the class got worse and worse. I failed the class that year, and began to be frustrated after that.

After the Result Day function, when I was breaking myself into pieces, she entered into my room and hugged me before she kissed me. She told the story of my birth, childhood, basically how she survived her days while bringing me up to then. She not only retold the story of her life, which she hadn’t told to anybody even to her husband, but also made me weep on her lap. She repeated her long told phrase, “You have to become a doctor.” She also shared with me why she was very alarmed about me. She said that she wanted to put some lovable efforts towards my studies but it went in vain because I was not in the position to follow her good advice. Before she wept she said, “Pardon me, my son! I didn’t hesitate to punish you physically in front of your friends because I can’t sacrifice my ambition to make you a doctor.” After some time, she controlled herself but I was weeping as I hadn’t seen a woman weeping before, and she was my own mother. She then said, “I love you more than anything on this earth.”  She then taught how I can be a good boy, a good student, a good man and a better citizen of the nation, giving various epical and historical allusions. She finally said, “It is not easy to seek the fortune of a great man, but if you try nothing is impossible to you, and I am here to help you.”

That day, I knew that my mother had two faces like a coin. She regretted mistreating me and I regretted not understanding her. After that she started to treat me better than anybody and I dedicated more time to my study. A student who failed the class in the previous year started shining in the following year. She taught me not to smoke, not to drink, even not to chew tobacco like other youths of my age. She also taught me the social manners, etiquette and some rational behavior. I learned from her to respect my seniors and to serve the community. She taught me to be careful with girls, money, water, fire, obstinate persons and the king. I followed her like a good student of an ideal teacher.   Then, I began to understand what a mother is to her child. Now I have become a good individual but just because of her sacrifice, hard works, good guidance, inspiration and motivation. I wonder today, if my mother hadn’t been there, what I would have become? At present, I appreciate the saying “God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.”

We left the Bhutanese Refugee Camp at Sanischare on August 21, 2009. While we left the camp that day, I left my teachers, friends, my community, my neighbors, my families and above all my mother. At that time, I wasn’t told where I was going, but I was heading to United States of America. My parents and grandmas in the family blessed us with words of prayer for a safe journey. Mom said, ‘ Don’t worry you will be alright wherever you go but be prepared to tackle if something comes ahead in your life. You are a good boy; you can do many things in your life. Don’t forget that I have a dream about you.” Putting her palm on my head, she said, “God will bless you.” Then they waved their hands.

Now, my mom is very far away from me. Her words of inspiration are still very effective in my life. For me, my mother is the name of God in my lips and heart in my life. Ralph Waldo Emerson says, “Men are what their mothers made them.” I strongly support the Idea of Ralph Waldo Emerson. My mother is the most significant person in my life. What I am today is the result of all of her contributions to me. She produced me as an animal does, raised with hurdles and sufferings and transformed a biological human being into a social human being. Personally, my mom is deeply rooted as a very meaningful person in my heart and memory. Indeed, she is the most significant person in my life. I have the greatest respect for my mom.

Tags: Bhutanese Literature Puranaghare