My Unsung Warrior

"Not all heroes were cape", these used to be my mother's favourite lines while I was growing up. She was a girl born and brought up in the beautiful valley of Dehradun, studying in the best of schools and having the friend circle one could only dream of. My nanaji used to be a great advocate of education and he always made sure that both his children ( my mom and mama) read as many books as possible.

When she got married to my dad her life took a 360-degree turn, a girl who had never left Dehradun was now living in a small apartment in the Mayanagri    ( Mumbai), slowly both my parents started building their lives together and then after 5 years of there marriage, I was born. 

I was and still am the centre of her world, my dad started working in the Ministry of Defense and my mom became active in social work and my upbringing, we had many servants at our disposal then. I completed my education and moved out, in the meanwhile my dad also got retired and shifted to their retirement home in Lucknow .All was going well they were happy and I was growing in my career in Pune My mom called me back in the year 2019, maybe she sensed something, something which will change our lives forever.

While the first wave of covid was spent making new recipes and family games, during the second wave our whole family got infected, I recovered it in just 3-4 days but mom was having a lot of fatigue and Dad got pretty serious. 

He had to be admitted to a hospital in an ICU, I was with my dad and my mom was all alone in the house. She spend many many sleepless nights worrying about us. She used to make 4 separate meals for me and dad every day when she herself was not at all well. Every day was a new fight for her, I have seen her struggling but still smiling and being my strength in those difficult times. Once my father was back after 3 months in the hospital, she took it as a challenge to make everything right for us.

From the date my father got sick to till date we do not have a helper in the house, she does with a little help from me all the dishes, cleaning and cooking. I have seen her spending hours and hours on YouTube and the internet searching for recipes with no to minimum oil, no masala, searching about medicines, consulting with doctors ( homopathy, alopathy and aryurvedic) and searching about easy exercises for dad, going on walks with him,  motivating when when he used to get tied after 5 minutes only, I have seen her doing something different everyday day, struggling and going out of her way every day to make him healthier and happier.

It's all her struggle that after 1.5 years finally his Blood pressure, sugar, hypertension, and heart rate all are normal. He is getting better every day. They say behind a successful man is a woman but I would like to add that behind a healthy family is also a woman.

I have seen many heroes but my mom is and will always be my favourite one.