My Mother was the youngest of three sisters and grew up in an
affectionate extended family in West Bengal where everyone wanted to help and
support her. Predictably, one day, she had to leave her father’s home to get married. In
March 1967, she married my father, an Air Force Officer who took her to his
home in Belgaum, 2000 kms away from Calcutta and she had set up and managed
home initially for the two of them. Over the next 13 years as typically of the
life an Air Force Officer’s wife she kept moving with her husband from place to
place as per the Air Force postings. Along the way she gave birth to two sons and
brought them up.
In 1980 my father was posted to New Delhi and it was felt
that there was need for some additional income in the family and Delhi also
offered opportunities for my mother. My mother took up the challenge and first she
undertook nursery training and got a job as a Nursery teacher. She later
completed her B.Ed. to get a job as a fulltime teacher in Air Force Bal Bharti
School. It was truly an accomplishment for her to undertake studies at the age
of 40 and start working at this late age, having never worked at all. As
typical of all working moms, she would wake up early, prepare food for all of
us and then board her bus to take her to school.
In September 2010, very suddenly my father was diagnosed
with lung cancer and succumbed to a botched up operation within 2 months. While
I was with my father during his operation and later during the funeral and
mourning, but I had to get back to my new job, which I had just joined a month
back. Despite the fact that I couldn’t do help much initially, my mother
handled all the tasks that enabled her to live by herself after the loss of her
husband.
As mentioned initially, being the youngest sister, my mother’s
parents and her elder sisters always looked upon her as a little girl who
needed to be helped, but by looking after herself in various circumstances of
life, she has proved herself to be a true heroine.
