Few years ago, My Sanskrit teacher told me a tale of Pundit(scholar) and a Tenali Rama. . Once a Pundith(scholar) walks into the court of King ‘Krishna Devaraya‘. scholar could talk in 13 languages so fluently that no one could recognize which was his mother tongue. That was Pundit’s(scholar’s) challenge too in the court. He challenged no one could ever find out his mother tongue. Worried Krishna Devaraya asks for help from Tenali rama. Tenali Rama told Krishna Devaraya to rest peacefully. Next day as soon as scholar came into the court, Tenali rama starts thrashing that Pundit( scholar) with a huge bamboo stick, pundith gets panic and out of pain starts screaming ‘Amma garu‘ ‘Ammagaru‘. Thats it, Tenali rama says pundit’s mother tongue is Telgu( one of the South Indian lanuage). He so determined this fact that, every one calls out for their mother when they land in trouble and thats the reason he plotted this act. My grand father even when he was in his 80′s called out for his mom probably zillion times when he used to fall sick with cold or cough.
When ever I talk to anybody about their moms, they undoubtedly get to foods. Thing that most of the people miss most about their moms is food cooked by her. Hmm thats really selfish. Though my mom didn’t cook very often a most splendid meals, whenever she cooked it was really yummy.Mommies are really lovable, adorable, huggable and at times very very irritating and scoldable. However for all that she has done, I don’t approve very much of this international mother’s day and cannot really un approve it too. I some times wonder why does children have to go live separately in the first place? and if at all for job sake they are living separate is it required to remember mom on one single day? Still i feel at least everyone is taking one day to let their mothers know that they love her :-). And moreover I feel though we all felt the same way about our moms, we would tell that to her on that particular day when everybody else is doing it.
There is a proverb which says ” there is no food tastier than salt” and there is no closer kin than mom.”
Meaning, though U have best of the food ready, without salt in it its tasteless and Though u have many kiths and kins no one is as as real as mother.
Someone beautifully said once, All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his! And the negative part of it is, often mother is made responsible for all her children’s actions, and sometimes children themselves blame their mothers for not having given them good enough upbringing. what they fail to understand is, after all mother is also a human being. So probably mother’s day is one beautiful opportunity to amend all mistakes and extend caring and loving hand towards your mother.
Happy mother’s day Mommy :-).
Mothers Day History: Though there is no genuine record maintained, from what I see, it goes back ages and according to most sources looks to have started as Mother’s day festival in honor of Mary, Jesus Christ’s mother. And then looks to have spread has mother’s day in the honor of all mother’s. Another source in the same Greek history talks of mother’s day celebration that started as honoring festival of goddess Rhea said to be the mother of many deities in the Greek mythology. This festival looks to have turned as social event in early 1600 in England as mothering Sunday. Though many countries still have their own celebration dates, it is most commonly celebrated on second Sunday in the month of May every year.
Etymology:
How we call mother in different langualges really facinated me. Some examples of different languages around the world. Most of then have one letter common that “M”. Is that a mere coincidence?
Sanskrit- Matr, Matru(a)
Hindi, Gujrati, Punjabi, Bengoli- Maa
Kannada, Tamil, Malyalam – Amma
Marathi – Aayi
German – Mutter
French – Mere
Frisian – Emo, Emä, Kantaäiti, Äiti
Urdu – Ammee
English – Mom, Mummy, Mother
Italian – Madre
Portuguese – Mãe
Albanian – Mëmë; Nënë; Burim; Kryemurgeshë
Belarusan – Matka
Cebuano – Inahan; Nanay
Serbian – Majka
Czech – Abatyse
Dutch – Moeder; Moer
Estonian – Ema
Greek – Màna
Hawaiian – Makuahine
Hungarian – Anya, Fu
Ilongo – Iloy; Nanay; Nay
Latin – matr
Indonesian – Induk, Ibu, Biang, Nyokap
Russian – mat
Swedesh, Spanish, swaheli, Romanian – Mamma
Turkish – anne, Ana
Ukrainian – Mati
Zeneize – Moe.
revering mother:
Matru Devobhava– Venerate mother as god
Pitru devo bhava– venerate father as god
Acharya devo bhava–Venerate teacher as god
Atithi Devo bhava– venerate guest as the god.
Though its not possible to explain the idolized places of mom in words let me try with an example.
In Native Indian community there is a system of assuming celibacy by forsaking world ly pleasure to acquire divine blessings for the sake common man. We call them ‘Swamiji’. Once he forsakes his life of worldly pleasures ( Grahasthashram) and takes up the life of saint (sanyasashram) he is assumed to have achieved higher position. Once he has turned saint upon encountering everybody needs to bow down and convey respects( Namaskar) to him including his father. Only person whom he can convey respects by bowing down(Namaskar) after god is his mother! That says it all.
