Come what may ,
how can mother be an ill omen?
By
P.R.Ramachander
(It had been practice
among most of us , that
a widowed mother is not supposed
to participate in the
marriage of her
children. Though this custom has
almost faded away from most of our families, there was a report
about such an incident in a
newspaper (16th july) and Here is
an emotional appeal to correct this
anachronism , penned in Tamil by the
reporter (from post of my friend
Anantha Narayanan-thanks to him )
When a mother who
has lost her husband,
Feeds her baby , did we
say that,
It is an act of ill omen
and not desirable,
And that we will
feed her little baby?
When a motherwho has
lost her husband ,
Sends her children to
school to study ,
Did we say that it is an ill omen,
And we shall send
them to school.
When the
mother who has lost her husband ,
Offers dowry and presents
to the groom,
Did we say that
is an ill omen ,
And so we do not want them from her.
But when the mother
who has lost her husband,
Comes to see her
children getting happily married,
How come we say
that is an ill omen ,
And see to
it that even her shadow does not fall there.
But when the
father who has lost his wife ,
After arranging
the marriage and comes to attend it,
How come we do
not say that it is act of ill omen,
But say it is very appropriate and is very desirable.
1 comment:
Very thoughtful of you to have written on this illogical and cruel practice. I have no words to condemn the practice of avoiding ladies who have lost their husbands in family functions. If you take a stand based on our religion which talks about the immutable atman, there is no way you can justify this. Recently, I attended a marriage and was searching for the mother of the bridegroom to convey my best wishes but could not meet her at all. I learnt that she wanted to avoid us , being a woman who lost her husband a few years ago. It is also sad that ladies themselves are the perpetrators of this custom.
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