‘Mother’ a word that remains best defined when it remains undefined. Mother and her role in our lives is so great that it would be too silly even to try to define her in a few words. Her importance in our lives is immeasurable, and when she is no more the loss is irrepairable. My mother was not an educated woman with a certificate from some university, but she has been the force behind me to be a teacher and create many graduates from the universities. Here I am putting down some lines of my relationship with my mother, hope you all too find some similarity.

              The First Stage

  Helpless, in the cradle,  I was an infant.

   She would smell my pain within an instant

   I would cry and puke and make a mess,

May be even then I knew she was there to redress.   

Manny a times I would fall ill 

Holding me in lap, with sleepless eyes the nights she would fill.

Thirst or hunger never bothered her 

I was her world, and she was my mother.

Most of the time, she spent heavy days.

But never she was weary, to clear my ways.

All she prayed was to see me smile

Her heart was the purest, with no sense of guile.

           The Second Stage

I was a juvenile, my attitude was wild.

she worked over time to make me mild.

She fought against the complaints, she fought for me.

I was rough, which never was she.

With my age my ambitions too grew

Every other day my demand was ready for something new.

With pain and faith, she provided me the best

It was her sacrifice then, that today I can rest.

She would buy new dress for me when her dress remained torn

A career for her son was dearer than her belongings being worn.

She didn't have much wealth, but gave out of it every inch

Neither she complained, nor allowed me to know the pinch. 

             The Third Stage

Fate plays its part, and so we parted 

I could not be by her when by her, I was most wanted

Thousands of miles away were she and me

I felt a sense of hollow, for my mother whom I could not see

I remember her quaking voice over the phone.

Even today it shakes each and every of my bone

Never she made a complaint, never was there a demand,

All she had for me was blessings, Never was there a single command. 

Tear even now roll down my cheeks

The last image of her to me always pricks 

She was my mother, with all her charm

When her still body lay in my helpless arms.

                                     ---------------- Anupam,