Yesterday, while driving to Palampur, a classic Kishor Kumar song played on the radio and all of us joined in, belting it out as loudly as possible. The song was Phoolon ke rang se, dil ki kalam se from the movie Prem Pujari. One of the lines in the song goes like this: Lena hoga janam hamay kai kai baar, meaning that we will have to be reborn again and again just to fully savor the love between us.
After the song was over and our throats nicely sore, mommy said something that took my breath away. She said "Puja, I wish to be born as your mother in my next life too!'"
As is my habit when overwhelmed, I joked about it. I said that it would be better that she be my daughter so that I could order her around, and she retorted that as a daughter, she would make my life hell.
But jokes apart, I was totally touched by that statement. After all, I am the child who, as a teen, gave her serious trouble and scrubbed off a bit of the shine from her otherwise charmed life. It is true that whenever I read the phrase black sheep of the family, I see myself reflected in it as the tortured and rebellious teen in a family of regular good people. And even now, mom and I have our daily minor skirmishes on totally innocuous issues.
That my mom wants to be my mom again if possible is an honor that I never expected and have difficulty adjusting to. It seems to paint the black sheep gray!
And I kinda like it.
After the song was over and our throats nicely sore, mommy said something that took my breath away. She said "Puja, I wish to be born as your mother in my next life too!'"
As is my habit when overwhelmed, I joked about it. I said that it would be better that she be my daughter so that I could order her around, and she retorted that as a daughter, she would make my life hell.
But jokes apart, I was totally touched by that statement. After all, I am the child who, as a teen, gave her serious trouble and scrubbed off a bit of the shine from her otherwise charmed life. It is true that whenever I read the phrase black sheep of the family, I see myself reflected in it as the tortured and rebellious teen in a family of regular good people. And even now, mom and I have our daily minor skirmishes on totally innocuous issues.
That my mom wants to be my mom again if possible is an honor that I never expected and have difficulty adjusting to. It seems to paint the black sheep gray!
And I kinda like it.
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