Aiborlang and Sentinaro Ao
Dimapur
‘Mother’s arms are more comfortable than anyone else’ says Princes Diana. Thus, the second Sunday of the month May is kept aside as Mother’s day. The Mother’s day was first celebrated in 1908 by Anna Jarvis who in honour of her own mother Ann Reeves Jarvis, a peace activist who cared for the wounded soldiers on both sides of the American civil war. Consequently, from that particular year till this present time the celebration of Mother’s day is celebrated everywhere in the world. Few years back during the Mother’s Day someone was asked to define a mother and that particular person said that a mother is the one who if there are two apples in the table and if there are two children, she would say you both of you eat the apples I don’t like it. Such is the mother who is able to sacrifice and forego even the best thing in life for the sake of the children. However, as we keep the mother’s day, it is very unfortunate that raped and murdered cases of women and children are being reported almost daily in the daily newspapers and news channels. The mentality of the society on women should be changed particularly in the patriarchal society where women and mothers are considered as less power than men. Someone has correctly said that the perfection of a woman is to become a mother and if the woman is depressed and spoiled by the society before she could reach the stage of motherhood due to rape and other social evils against her then the society is responsible for not shaping her to be a good mother in the future. Again why mother are specials? Someone has also rightly said that a house without a mother is simply a house while a house with a mother is a home. Mother is a person who is affectionate and love ready to sacrifice and do anything for the sake of her children.
We read in the Bible about the goodness of a mother particularly about the Wisdom of Solomon’s judgment on the two mothers who came to him fighting for justice over the dead and the living child. When King Solomon threatens to divide the living child into two pieces, the real mother of the child said, ‘Please, my Lord, give her the living boy; certainly do not kill him!’ (1st King 3: 16-27). This is a real mother who is full of love and compassionate towards her children. Absolutely no good mother in the world would like to see her own children being harm or destroy by others. Such is a mother, and we are experiencing that kind love and affectionate from our own mothers every day. Therefore, are mothers not special in our daily life? When the Emperor Constantine I won the important battle of the Milvian Bridge against Maxentius in October 312, his mother Helena came forward and knelt down before her son, however the emperor Constantine took her up and said not the mother should kneel before her son but instead a son should kneel before his own mother. Hence, even a great man like the Emperor Constantine I knew the value of honouring and respecting his own mother, how much more to us who receive her love and affectionate every day.
Sometimes it is very unlucky to hear in our villages and localities about son or daughter killing or beating his or her own mother which is termed as matricide in United States legal system. The act of harming the elders particularly our parents is condemnable not only to human being but also to God who clearly commanded us in the fourth commandment to honour and respect our father and mother (Exodus 20:12). I am sure no religion in the world exists to harm or to ill treat our parents particularly our mothers in using of words or actions that are against their wish. On the other hand, it is so fortunate that this year the mother’s day (13th May) is just after the international nurses’ day (12th May). We feel that our mothers are the best nurses in the world. In fact, breast-feeding of a mother is the best food for a child and the touch of a mother when we are sick or not well is better than any touch of the medical people in the hospitals and health centres. We have observed that the first person the child could recognize in the world is its own mother. When the child cries because of some uncomfortable situation the mother is first one who can stop the child from crying and who can feel the feeling of the child at the moment through her gentle touch and her lullaby songs. In the same way, if a child is hungry and asking for food the mother immediately can feel that the child is crying because of hunger. As a result, is mother not a special person? Hence as we keep the Mother’s day let us remember that mothers are special people and let us honour and respect them always for they are the one who shape our lives to be better persons in the society through their good example and good advice rendered to us when we are wrong. Happy Mother’s Day, May God bless our Mothers.
