Amma: The God We Ever Knew

                             Amma: The God We Ever Knew

                                       Before we understood prayer… we already knew her love.

The God We Ever Knew

Some words mean more than just the sounds we say.
They are places we return to when life becomes _______________.

Amma. Maa. Mother. Amme. Abbe.

The words might be different, but the feeling always stays the same.

Before we understood what the world was and is , we understood her voice.

Before we learned how to pray, we knew her touch.

Before we ever imagined God sitting somewhere above the clouds, we had already seen one moving quietly through our home in a faded saree, carrying everyone’s worries as if they weighed nothing.

Maybe that’s why people say a mother is the closest we get to God. Not because she’s perfect, but because she keeps finding hope even when life gives her almost nothing.

The Magic We Never Noticed

The Magic We Never Noticed

When we were children, life felt automatic.

The food was on the plates at the right time, without notice. School uniforms were washed and folded before you even thought of it. Water bottles were cleaned and filled. Medicine arrived before the fever fully settled. Somehow, everything worked just like a wish.

We never stopped to ask how.

That’s the innocence of childhood. We think homes take care of themselves. We don’t see the woman behind every comfort quietly holding everything together with tired hands and sleepless eyes.

We didn’t notice the dreams she set aside so ours could grow.

It’s only later, when we have our own responsibilities, that we understand something important.

A mother is not just someone living inside a house.
She is the reason the house still feels alive.

The Generation That Suffered Quietly

The Generation That Suffered Quietly

Our mothers came from a generation that hardly talked about pain.

They didn’t know how to say they were tired in their minds. They didn’t take breaks. They just kept going.

Most of their tears were hidden in the kitchen, behind the noise of pressure cookers and boiling tea.

They skipped buying things for themselves so we could study better. They carried stress, fever, disappointment, and fear without letting it spill into the house. Even on difficult days, they smiled because they wanted us to believe life was stable.

Looking back, that smile seems heroic, yes heroic, which covered a lot of sacrifices that we don’t even  know and will come to know.

Not because it was fake.
But because it lasted through everything.

When The World Moved Forward, She Stayed Back To Hold Us Together

She Stayed Back to Hold Us Together

There’s a hard truth many of us realize late in life.

We only see our parents as they are now. We don’t see the years when they were just getting by.

While people around her moved ahead in life, buying homes, celebrating achievements, travelling, and building security, my mother stayed in one place trying to protect her family and her two children from falling apart.

She stood strong against every problem that came our way.

Not for herself.
For us.

Life kept testing her in unexpected ways. Every time things seemed stable, another problem showed up quietly.

Still, she kept going.

I sometimes think mothers from that generation never had the luxury to ask if they were happy. Survival consumed their entire life.

And in the middle of all that struggle, she raised two children.

Her children.

She raised us with great sacrifice, sleepless nights, silent prayers, fears she never shared, and a strength she might not have known she had. One of us slowly grew stronger. And just when her hard work started to pay off, life took away the person she wanted to share it with.

That part of life always hurts me when I think about it deeply. Sometimes life waits until a person reaches the shore, only to take away the one they wanted beside them most.

But even after that, she didn’t stop living for us.

By then, her dreams were no longer about herself. They were about us.

The Day You Realise Your Mother Is Growing Old

The Day you realise your mother is growing old

Then one day, life changes again.

You suddenly notice grey hair that was never there before. The same hands that once carried the entire family now struggle to open medicine bottles. The woman who moved fearlessly through crowded streets now walks carefully across roads.

And you feel a heaviness inside.

Because for the first time, you realise your mother is not invincible.

She is human.

She is growing old.

That realisation changes every son and daughter forever.

But Mothers Never Really Change

But Mother Never Really Change

Even now, after everything life has put her through, her habits remain the same.

She still asks, “Did you eat?”

She still waits for phone calls.

She still notices sadness hidden inside a simple “I’m fine.”

That is the thing about mothers. Their love never grows smaller with time. If anything, it becomes quieter and deeper.

Maybe that’s why it feels so comforting to hear one simple message from her:

“Reached safely ah?”

No matter how old we become, part of us will always remain a child waiting for that message.

Before I End This

Some people spend their whole lives searching for peace.

Sometimes… it is sitting quietly beside your mother while she asks simple things like,

“Did you eat?”
“When will you come home?”
“Why are you looking tired?”

If your mother is near you right now, sit beside her for a while.

Not later.
Not after work.
Not after life becomes less busy.

Now.

Because we often forget that the people who love us the most are growing older while silently continuing to care for us the same way they always did.

And the truth is…

No matter how old we become, part of us still waits for her voice, her food, her concern, and the comfort that only she can give.

A mother never asks for greatness from her children.

She doesn’t expect perfection.

She only wants to see her children happy, healthy, smiling, and standing strong in life.

I may not be the perfect son.
I may still have more to give her.
I may still fail in many ways…

But one thing will never change.

My respect for my mother is greater than any prayer I have ever said.

God may have given me life.

But she is the one who filled that life with meaning, warmth, strength, and love.

And honestly…

One of the greatest blessings in my life is that I can still call out one word —

“Amma.”

Happy to be in this world because of you, Amma.

Happy Mother's Day, Amma...!!  

You know what… even if I miss calling her, she calls me back the next moment—first asking if I’ve eaten, then about everything else in my life… and somehow, the conversation always turns more towards my wife and kids than me 😊