I'm 23 and I am at a stage where I mother my mother. Maa is in her early fifties and not a day goes by when  she doesn't look up to me to help her out from some fix. She looks for answers to every decision she needs to take. Be it as simple as what to cook for dinner it is expected of me to come up with an plausible answer. Everytime she nags about something, I need to remind her to let things go. She almost forgets that I'm her daughter and it is I who needs anwers not questions. She's a perfectly healthy woman who managed our house for a more than thirty years. It's overwhelming when this superwoman comes about asking me every then and now ‘What should I do?’

Yes I also need to be a strict mother sometimes. I need to scold her and remind her to control her sugar intake and keep her cholesterol on check. 

The more you walk in her shoes, the more you realise what all your mother goes through for you the more you realise how much she deserves.

I don't know when our roles reversed. I've seen the role reversal when my grandma was sick. Ma took care of her like her baby. But I didn't realise when it happened with me and Maa. She's a strong woman. And raised me to be a one too. Sometimes her questions puzzle me and I say it to her face, I'm too young to understand all of this. We share a good laugh. 

Well it's not always that I'm the one always mothering her. I still need her permission to got out with my friends. You know, how desi moms are! It's not that I'm no more afraid of her but it's easier to understand her. It's easier to understand where she's coming from when you get to know her. 

I don't know how I feel about exchanging roles as Mother and Daughter. Well I guess that's how it works, she takes care of you and you grow old to be by her side till the very end.

I feel, be it any relationship, with time the lines fade ad the boundaries disappear. There are fights, there are quarrels but in the end there's always unconditional love for each other. And that's all that matters