The Unconventional Mother
The night slips into silence. The world is in deep slumber. But a distant wail annihilates and creeps into the silence.
Crumbling it bit-by- bit.
It's little Shanaya - just a few weeks old, getting accustomed herself to the new world. The darkness within the womb now sheathed with the lights around. Getting accustomed to the cycle of day and night has been a daunting task for her.
But, she has certainly touched countless lives around around.
One such soul is Sharad - Shanaya's elder brother. Her rose tinted cheeks, lovely curls and firm grasp has been like breeze to his mundane, rugged life.
Sharad manoeuvres and holds firmly below her neck , places the other hand to support her back. He gently sways her, hums a sweet song and rocks her to sleep. His hands being so deft and apt with the series of movement. As if he had been doing this for a while now.
“Sharad, don’t you have anything else to talk, other than your sister?” his friends would nudge.
“I love her a lot. And, I’m sure after you meet her, you would love her as well . She’s too adorable!”
Soon, seasons passed, the winters paved way for summers, imbued by the rainy days. But, amidst of all these all he could just think and cherish was his little sister. Right from her first coy smile to her ceaseless giggles, from her first roll to her first independent stride; each and every memory clearly etched in his mind.
Hearkening his friends sharing accounts of their siblings, Sharad unknowingly wished for one.
He always coveted a baby, a companion to play, someone to care but hardly knew that it would come with a cost – his mother.
Yes, he had lost his mother when she birthed her. For, a few days he was numb, he didn’t know how to react.
The first wail enwreathed the room full of hope, joy and celebration. But, soon the air of commemoration turned into melancholy and pain.
But in those tumultuous days there was just one thing that gave him hope – the his adorable sister. The glint in her eyes captivated his soul and tending to her kept him busy all day.
With his father being off to work he learnt to care for her in his absence. From bottle-feeding her to making her burp, changing her soiled diapers, to rocking her to sleep he mastered them all.
His world had certainly change. For it revolved around his little sister, now. But, he accepted the role willingly. He tended to her like a mother, played like a brother and guided her like a companion. For, she was all he had now.
Motherhood is an emotion beyond the physical and gender-based demarcations. It’s makes us certainly more beautiful beings. It resides in each one of us; it makes us dance with joy, agonize in pain, builds resilience in face of a tempest and to believe that miracles happen everyday.
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