Flash Post 295!

Button, here’s an open letter to my mother. Read it and let me have your comments.

Ma, it feels strange that this is the first letter I’m writing to you after 4 days of your passing away because we never exchanged a single letter when you were around!

What is this new home of yours like? Are you liking it there? Have you settled in? You must have met up with baba. Is he well and happy? Have you shared some of the stories you saved up when you were amongst us with him? What is he upto these days? Was he happy to see you? Even our family pictures were so few– and, that too, studio shots– that we have less than a dozen pictures of the four of us between ourselves. But the current selfie era is an era I don’t much care about because each and every moment of a person’s life is documented. Can also be boring, don’t you think? Could you have ever thought of taking pictures of yourself posing in various ways and in different costumes for the camera, storing and sharing them with friends and relatives?

When I was woken up with the news that you were no more in the wee hours of the 2nd,  I felt numb. Once the news slowly sank in, I–to be absolutely honest– actually thanked God for having whisked you away quietly from under our noses with none of us knowing about it. I know you had prayed to be healed and be your old self again but he must have needed you at his place! I think he let you rest in bed for those three months to buy time to make place for you in his house.

You must be happy that you were buried in the same grave as baba because that is what you wanted all along. But, ma, this ritual of burying the dead is something I don’t care about. I don’t like the whole procedure where ants and other insects feast on a carcass gradually. Cremation is a much humane and nicer way to bid farewell to the deceased. When I go, I have instructed my family members to cremate me and have also made up my mind to donate all my usable body parts to a charity. That will bring me joy as someone who is blind, might be able to see with the pair of eyes I have no use for anymore.

That photograph of you which was used for the prayer service is a very nice photograph. I also mentioned to some family members how you were a sexy lady in your younger days. This made everyone in the room crack up. Now, don’t crinkle your brows and show your dissent because you were really lovely to look at when you were young.

I know that the house in Kolkata won’t be the same going back to, now that you are no longer there. But I’ll continue dropping in because you breathed your last there and also because  I have many fond memories of all of us spending time together, especially the birthday celebration when you turned ninety.

Take care, ma. Of yourself mainly because, when you were amongst us, you never cared for yourself but was ever willing to help others sidetracking your own health and yourself. Please give baba my love and tell him I miss him a lot too.

Love you lots and miss you…

Your firstborn

It’s truly touching. How would you describe a mother?

I don’t know, Button. Can you?