A mother's love is boundless and unconditional. There are no words that can do justice to a mother's love, care and sacrifices for her children. However, this time as I think about mother's day, I would like to make a special request to all the mothers, mother-in-laws, future mothers and future mother-in-laws.
Today, I believe (or would like to believe) that no mother needs to be told to educate her daughter or treat her equal to her son. However, our duty doesn't stop at educating our daughters and making them financially independent. We also need to teach our sons to accept the financial independence of daughters and partake in household duties because "Sharing is Caring". Just like we don't celebrate a working daughter and of course we don't need to, we also need to stop celebrating our sons entering the kitchen. We don't need to celebrate yet we must be grateful for having someone who can share the responsibilities no matter what those are.
जब एक लड़की घर चलाने में मदद कर सकती है, तो एक लड़का भी घर संभालने में मदद कर सकता है |
When we, the mothers, teach our daughters to treat her husband's family as her own family right from the 1st day of marriage - we must teach ourselves to treat our daughter-in-laws as daughters.
बहु घर को अपनाएगी, आप उसे अपनाएँ |
When we, the mothers, teach our daughters and expect our daughter-in-laws to treat her husband's parents as her own parents - we must teach our sons to treat his wife's parents as his own parents.
जब एक बहु बेटी बन सकती है, तो एक दामाद बेटा क्यों नहीं बन सकता?
When we, the mother-in-laws, expect our daughter-in-laws to leave her parents' home and start a new life in a new home, we must teach ourselves to leave our insecurities. We bring someone's daughter to our home but can't even share our son with her.
जब किसी के जिगर का टुकड़ा घर लाएँ , तो अपने जिगर के टुकडे को भी उसके साथ बाँट ले |
When we, the mother-in-laws, expect our daughter-in-law to adjust as per the rules & traditions of our family, we must also adjust few things according to our daughter-in-law because nothing else would make her feel more welcomed. A relation is between two persons & one sided adjustments aren't going to help.
कुछ तुम बदलो, कुछ खुद को बदलो |
When we, the mothers, teach our daughters to stay strong and not compare themselves to anyone, we must also teach ourselves to not compare our daughter-in-laws with our daughters. Both are different persons brought up in different homes with different upbringings. When two siblings can't be same, how can a daughter and a daughter-in-law be same? And if you end up comparing them knowingly or unknowingly, don't forget to include the things your daughter-in-law is better at.
कन्यादान सबसे उत्तम दान है, उस दान का मान रखें |
And it goes without saying, all of this applies to daughters and
daughter-in-laws as well. But since they have already taken the first step by leaving their maternal home, the next duty is of mothers and mother-in-laws to make them feel welcome and shower them with love. I'm saying all this because even today our daughters commit suicide in their marriages in-spite of being well educated and financially independent. So, it's evident that something is still missing and this was my naive attempt to address that.
एक घर छोड़ दूसरा घर बसाने चली, है वो भी एक नाज़ुक कली |
Lastly, mothers know all and they don't need to be told anything. They just need to be reminded सास भी कभी बहु थी |
