A Mama's Story

When I first saw the 1948 film ‘I remember Mama’, I felt proud and happy at the end of it. Normally, after viewing a film belonging to the genre of motherhood, particularly the ones that ooze the very essence of motherhood marvellously with their unflinching devotion and tender ways, I tend to get reminded of my own mother. I get transported to those days, which I still yearn for, where father is the head of the family but you are nevertheless taken under the loving shelter of your mother, the problem solver, the ultimate controller of the happenings. But today I’m bubbling with pride because I not only relate the central character to my mother, but I saw shades of myself in her. There were several moments in the movie that has beautifully struck a sharp chord on me. I shall write on one such moment. There was this particular point in the film where the mother, played by Irene Dunne, promises her fourth daughter that she would be near her once her surgery is done. But due to the rules laid out by the hospital, the mother is refused to visit her daughter for 24 hrs. Because she doesn’t want to go back on her promise and because she was dying to see her child well, she plans on visiting her child that very night in the guises of a floor cleaner. For most of us, this act only would suffice to prove the concerns of a doting and caring mother. But to me it was the scene that followed that that was almost magical. She enters her daughter’s ward and finds her little angel lying on bed, trying to go to sleep. She sings her a lullaby in her angelic voice that puts the rest of children to sleep as well. But the whole beauty of the scene comes after that when Dunne walks out of the room as soon as the duty nurse returns. The nurse observes the room and notices that there is a change, that there is a wonderfully soothing, almost berceuse silence emanating from the room, that for a minute she wondered if that was the very same room she had left a couple of minutes ago. For me, that was the icing of this delicious cake. Not because of the effort she took to see her daughter and keep her word but because of the ethereal effect her song had on the entire ward. It was a wonderfully treated scene by director George Stevens. The movie definitely sums up the everlasting magical effect a mother can provide her family. And to me, it was a gentle reminder of the mother within me that it kindles my heart to even think of it. This film wasn’t just about a mother but a tale of a woman of solid substance. She is a wife, daughter, niece and a sister too. Her responsibilities stretches beyond her family. And she doesn’t waver in her love towards anyone, although we know for certain that it is not easy to care for everyone with the same wavelength. To put down my higher innermost thoughts on the movie, I should say it was a self-introspection in several ways for me, even from the rare and rather unusual scenes. Everyone ought to watch this film at least once in their lifetime to witness the unquestionable splendour of motherhood as well as womanhood, played perfectly by Irene Dunne.

Manjadikuru...A peek into my past

There has been no movie that has moved me to such a great dimension as this one and that too on an intimate personal level. I too was born and grew up in Dubai during the early 90's but I can still connect to the film so well. How can I forget those times when we visited our ancestral home for every single summer holiday, when myself and my sister would eagerly count the days and tell each other that we will touchdown Kerala, our native soil at this time tomorrow. There were moments we would remain shocked when we discovered the time we could buy bread from the nearby grocery store  or when TV came into existence with a bang at my father's place. It, being a small village,we had a large crowd in the veranda that faced the bedroom in which this magical entertaining box  was kept for direct viewing by our village audience in the evening.

When I saw the movie, it made me realize how so very similar I was to Vicky. Telling the story from this protagonist child's view point was so refreshing. It made me wonder at myself as to what happened to that me who was often curious and surprised about the various ways things around me. When I asked amma to watch the movie, she did and she too agreed that I wasn't any different from Vicky. In fact,she could relate to the movie just as well as I could. I too had buddies long lost. There was this girl, who was older than me by a year or two. I was in my 5th grade when we came down for a vacation and I was wondering why she too was in fifth grade. My visit the very next year kept me thinking even more as to why she wasn't studying anymore. I also had other wonderful memories like playing around with calf. I would stroke it at literally every waking minute of my vacation. And just as in the movie, I too had very very rare vacations were we had all our aunts and uncles together. My father's brothers were all based in Dubai and we were the only folks who happened to and were lucky to visit our place every year. There are some things in the movie I haven't done. I'm so sorry to say that I haven't picked Manjadikurus, which was the fountainhead of this remarkable movie. But this was the only film where I watched a protagonist playing myself in the movie :). It rang so true to my life and with such resonance that I believe will never be seen again. I'm now based in Bangalore and will be visiting Kerala this week, after a couple of months break. Hope to get a glimpse of my roots this time!

20-24 months- the parrot girl!

My little sunshine will turn 2 in a week's time and one of the most amazing incidents happened last saturday (2/3/2013). Since her joining the play home in Jan, she had already attended to the sports day. But the annual day that took place the day before led me to a shocking revelation of my own daughter. I do not know if it will change with time or is it just a glimpse of her slowly evolving personality. Let me directly jump into the details. When we arrived at the preschool premises, I realized that they have organized a small performance by the play home kids. Since I wasn't aware of this, panic started to build in me in a slow way. I didn't want to go through that drama of her crying when she faces a crowd. Soon enough they asked the 12 kids to assemble and take seats that were arranged on the side of the stage. Each child was called upon where he/she will go to her teacher sitting on stage and sing rhymes. That was when her favourite helper came over to take her, which she happily did. When they had called upon Nakshatra, I was pleasantly surprised and I would lie if I did not tell you that my chest was swelling with pride to watch ponutti get up from her seat and walk over to the teacher with an inordinate sense of confidence. She took the mic from her and began to sing the way she does to us, except that she saw me while singing the third song and called out 'Amma' to which everyone laughed and turned over to look at me. I was embarrassingly happy. She did not complete the last rhyme and when the whole activity was over her class teacher told me she sings even better in class. But to me all this was blinded by what I'd just witnessed. Like the principal quoted her composure and body language on stage as 'fearless', I guess I should term it as 'monumental'. This is one of those incidents that you safely want to place on the rack of your memory but when ponutti reads this post one day, there will always be the proof the CD that we'll receive soon.

The four months can be rightfully described as the months of pure unadulterated talking like forming 2-4 word sentences. But the funny thing is that she would repeat even the most insignificant comment we make. It's very much like having a parrot around at home.
Ponutti joined her playhome on Jan 2nd and it was since then that she loved doing actions to any rhyme she is familiar with. I have seen a tremendous change in her with respect to knowing things. She still does not mingle with anyone and everyone. She even took time to mingle with her classmates. But apart from that, she is really happy and having fun with her teacher and two helpers. She also sings simple rhymes like baba black shep. humpty dumpty(her favourite), twinkle twinkle little star. Her knowledge in using words has had a towering influence in her talking. It may not always be a clarified way of pronounciation but yes, I do believe people will be able to figure it out.
When my mother visited for a period of three days in the month of Jan, I was genuinely shocked but happy that ponutti not just recognized her but also went up tosit on her lap. That is a huge complement in Ponuttis way. She never does that with anyone. She is still dependent and clingy for a lot of things on me. But in school, she has also begun to adore her Ruth aunty very much. Her class teacher was telling me the other day that she always comes first for race competitions in class. This I had seen when I used to sit with her in the beginning. I was pleasantly surprised, I should say that she was actually winning against kids way bigger, maybe even 4-5 months apart. Actually speaking, she is the youngest girl(1 year and 91/2 months) who joined in a  class of toddlers between 2-3 years. But during sports day which happened in February, it was nothing like the enthusiasm she used to show in class. I guess part of it was because of the onset of cold and another part due to the intimidation she felt when she saw other parents around. But the good part was as soon as the teacher came to her,the vestigial excitement she used to have for these kind of events came rushing back and she did her jumping race well enough. She has now found a friend in our next door neighbor Sanju. And other thing I'm very much proud of, is that she is grasping concepts with such ease. I was telling her one day that her ammama in Dubai has come down to Kerala. And now whenever I ask her about her grandma, she would say 'ammama kerala'. She has also corrected words that she would wrongly pronounce like balloon, chetta . She loves saying ABC'S, 123's and particularly the days of the week that ends with a melodious Saturday  There was a time when she would say MNOPQ even when she cries or fusses about for anything. There was another time when she touch our feet with respect after visiting Nikhil's Kalari class. I was even named her 'spider girl' because she would climb window grills to extend where she would reach the tubelight.

The word I've begun to hate in the process is 'paale'. She wouldn't stop asking till she gets milk from me. These four months were unbelievably fast and she kept learning huge concepts every week! We are bound to become spellbound when we notice our child's prodigious streak :)