Mother (Originally written in Telugu)

Your determination that the hands that touched another woman
Should never touch you, made you a loner.
So what? Your thought that a caring mother with a heart
Was worth million times a cold father with brute, has got you going.
And from then on, you never looked back!

Nobody knew whether you ate or not.
The only ornaments that you adorned were
Pride, self-respect, courage and honesty.
This is the tale of your youth

Afterwards, you worked hard to support
Your children’s studies and secure their future.
You bowed down to the circumstances
And swallowed your dislikes.
You derived your happiness from your children’s.

Your hands that worked tirelessly for your children
Also fed the first bites of your grandchildren.
Every drop of your blood toiled for
Your children, the children of your children,
Your well-wishers and all the needy ones you passed by.

So what did you get to keep in the end?
Because Selfishness, to you, was an unknown entity,
Your only worldly possession was survival.
O mother, how many births should I have to take to repay you?
The peace that I found in your shadow!
The protection that I sought under your wings!

When you had been through eighty three springs,
I used to count every second of my time
To experience the feeling of catching a glimpse
Of your glorious aura and your ever-loving face,
After returning home from a hard-day’s work.
This experience, to me, was heaven on earth.

I have made every effort from my end to protect you,
Until God called out for you,
With love so pure and care so personal
That in this entire world, only you and I know the truth

When the time came for me to hand you over to God,
The angelic glow that irradiated from your face and said goodbye,
Lit up a million candles in my heart, forever.
Rendered helpless, I had to give you up for a greater cause.
In every birth I take, I wish to be born as your daughter.
This, my mother, is my rhapsody to God.

- T.Suryakala (My mother)