True story of a gritty lady...


Some four decades back, a group of students in 9th standard came to a girl’s place and gave her a question paper.

“Study this much, yehi aayega kal ke exam mein”, they said.

The girl was nervous for being a part of this ‘crime’. She read only those questions that were to be asked in the exams.

She went to the school and sat for the examination. Before the exams could start, the principal asked the students to assemble in the foyer and asked, “who leaked the paper?”.

Nobody raised their hand, except for this girl. The girl was punished. The class mates did not talk to her for a year.

Her last year in school was not as enjoyable as she wanted it to be. But she did not repent her decision. She knew what she did was correct.

She could have escaped this mess, but she chose to confess than remain a coward. She truly followed the basic lesson that Gandhiji taught us i.e. to be honest.

That girl is none other than my dearest mom Mrs. Uma Vishwanathan who is celebrating her b’day today.

I love this characteristic of my mother. She is frank, honest and pure at heart.  You can trust her completely. 

She says it is better to confess to mistakes and face the music rather than hiding it and making thousands of stories to hide the truth.

Though I try to be honest, there are times when I lie without even blinking an eyelid.

For instance, daily I tell my parents that I will reach home in 15 minutes when actually I am an hour away from the destination. When quizzed about the delay, I would conveniently put the blame on the traffic.

Not that they believe me, but this has become my most often repeated lie. Dad once told me sarcastically, why don’t you come by train instead of rickshaws and cabs?

Must say honesty is the best but a difficult policy.

Another thing that I love about my mom is her progressive and no pretention attitude. She is quite progressive for her age. Though she gets worked up about how the society thinks, she never forces me into anything. Be it about my marriage or about my career choice. When I decided to take up writing as my career, my father was not quite impressed by my choice. But my mom took it in right spirits and allowed me to do what I like.

Like every other child, according to me, my mom is the best woman I have ever come across.

She is sweet, kind, beautiful and a great human being. And oh she is a hit among my friends. They love her more than they love me J.

I am very proud to have her as my mom and I hope god blesses me with her in my next birth too.

I can go on and on about my mom. But I know I have to stop somewhere.

So I would like to end this post with a quote that I read somewhere: God couldn’t be everywhere, so he created mothers.

This seems to be true in my case J

 Thank you mummy for being my pillar of support J.







13 comments:

Makk said...

Its difficult policy because our social system doesnt support honesty.

There are social systems where dishonesty is difficult to persuade.

Convey my best regards to her.

Keep Smiling...

Jack said...

Gayathri,

Please convey Happy Birthday to her on my behalf. May you have her guidance for many many years to come. And of course love too. To hide a lie, one has to tell another and this goes on till one is caught in web of lies. Difficult to tell the truth always but one must try to as much as one can.

Take care

Bikram said...

many many happy returns of the day to your Mom..

please do extend my regards to her and wish her a very happy birthday from my side please

Bikram's

Shruti said...

Happy Birthday to Aunty. Yes, she is our favorite. Unke jitna achchha aviyal duniya mein aur koi nahi banata. I miss Aunty's cooking.

AB said...

As I can notice, some of her traits have been inherited.

Wish her a very very happy birthday (belated)!

:) God bless!

Anita Jeyan said...

Happy Birthday Aunty!
I am sure she feels the same for u- in that next life part! Mothers are a blessing...in fact, you already realized her worth so much in your life. There are days in your future, when you will understand more deeply what a Mother is .. :-) This is from my experience ;-)

gayathri vishwanathan said...

@Makk thank you. Yes in our social system honesty is met with death or threat to life. Sad we live in the same country where our bapu spoke about truth.

@jack, thank you sir. True one must try to speak the truth always.

@bikramjiiiiiiiii thanks a lot. Will surely her your regards

@Shruti.... thanks a lot. And avial yes will get it for u whenever mummy makes :)

Abhinav thanks a lot. Except for her skin colour and child like innocence I have inherited nothing from her :P

Anita yes moms are the best gift in everyone's life and maybe I will understand this even more when I marry and have kids :)

Makk said...

He talked about it.

Even we talk about it, a lot more then he did.... thats national pass time you see.. :)

vinny said...

Belated birthday wishes to your mom!!

I'm in awe of her already:)

in this kalyug, honesty comes with a price. aunty was banned from friendship..it takes real guts to be honest nowadays:)

mOhan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mOhan said...

You've rightly said - its best but difficult policy. Nevertheless, people like your mom can sleep soundly more than anyone else knowing that they've nothing to fear...A good role model she is. Wishing her a very happy birthday...Do share other such inspiring stories..

gayathri vishwanathan said...

Thank u Vinnie :) being honest requires loads of guts :)

Thank u mOhan... will definitely share more inspiring stories whenever I come across them :)

Dr Roshan Radhakrishnan said...

Belated hAPPY Birthday to her.. you have no idea how rare a trait honesty has become... am seeing the other side of the spectrum so commonly today that finding that level of honesty is gold dust.