Special letter from a daughter in 20’s to her mother in her 50’s

Dear Mother, Let me hold your hand and take you with me to the forgotten time of your youthful days, which now seem to be covered in the yellow hues of nostalgia. This nostalgia crosses your path whenever we open the album of the 90’s kept in the corner of an almirah. as we open those albums the aroma of your youth rejuvenates your thoughts.

  I see a girl in her 20’s reflecting in your eyes as you with a childlike eagerness tell me how long your hair was, how you wearing a long sleek dress started a fashion trend in your college, how drinking campa and not coca cola was your vibe. How you danced on the songs played on the cassette player, how you and your friends secretly went and watched Hum Aapke Hai Kaun several times, how Phalguni Pathak, Sonu Nigam and Ali Chinai’s song Made in India were the pop of your time. How secretly talking on the landline was the real romance of your time. How you studied till your late 20’s and chose to build an independent life broke the stereotypes of that time.

 But one thing you never tell me but I read it in your eyes is how you long to go back in that time. you then flip the pictures as if the present is calling you to wake up from the past. As we close the album and you keep it safe in a corner, I hear your heart whispering to you that you see your youth in me. The same long hair I once had as yours, which eventually I got chopped. The same love for Sonu Nigam, Phalguni Pathak with a new addition to it is Ali Sethi, the urge to dress and look the best and the same fire to choose the path of freedom and independence.

At times I see you looking at yourself in the mirror hoping to meet your 20-year-old self. This 50’s I know is not what you expected too soon. But let me tell you something today. I remember all the fairytales you told me when I was a kid, at that time the fairy had wings, a blurred face … she used to caress me whenever I felt scared, that’s all.

Twenty years later, as now I am slowly stepping on the pedestal of being a woman, I still imagine that fairy whenever I am scared. That fairy has the most beautiful silver lining on her head, she goes to the office and still brings something for me while returning home every day, she drives her car, she cooks her meals, she loves and cares, she gives me strength and teaches me to never choose a path of dependency. that fairy does not have wings but she fights from the world in heels for me. that fairy has a face, that face is you ma.

You have the serenity like a petunia blooming, you have the high tides of strength like an ocean, you make Lilith and Aphrodite happy with your existence. as I am a part of you, I too carry your treasured years in me.

P.S – 50’s is looking fabulous on you

 Happy Mother’s Day To You!

By: Rahat Sharma
PGDM 1^st year
Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication