Filial love bonds two PMs

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan could not have given solution to “Kashmir’’ on a silver platter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He did better than that. He had sent a nice white saree to his nonagenarian mother – surely a warm and touching gesture. Each must be knowing the sensitivities of the other regarding their relationships with their respective mothers. We are told that Nawaz Sheriff makes it a point to meet his mother in spite of any official pressures and spend some time with Shamim Akhtar once a week.

When Narendra Modi met his mother after his election, his 95-year-old mother endearingly fed him sweets. Somewhere in Pakistan, Shamim Akhtar saw this visual along with her son Nawaz Sheriff and became emotional with moist eyes. And both of them never knew at that time that very soon her son will receive an invitation from Indian Prime Minister to attend the swearing-in ceremony and he will soon return with a shawl with best compliments from that very son. In fact, the gesture was reciprocation. Sheriff’s daughter Maryam Nawaz Sheriff tweeted, thanking Narendra Modi: “Thank you very much Prime Ministerji for the beautiful shawl for my grand mother which my father personally gave it to her.’’ Since when did we hear such warmth flowing between the heads of the State of neighbouring countries in the recent past? Our erstwhile Congress leaders (Sharad Pawar in particular) are suffering from megalomania saying that “communal fever’’ is spreading all over India while it was only “Corruption epidemic’’ during their tenure of a decade. We are watching leaders behave like human beings, for a change.

After exhausting cricket diplomacy, bus yatra, tourism, visiting religious shrines - it seems diplomacy has settled at white saree and shawl of mothers of the respective heads of State and why not! For once it looks that diplomacy has travelled from mundane to ethereal, from cerebral to sentimental. Some politicians adorn human face by default. They render sheen and lustre for the very reason. When Napolean Bonaparte, the ruthless dictator, almost ruled the world in World War I and returned home, he found his mother on the death bed. He sat at her bed and said: “Mom, you should live. Because the world is learning to call me ‘ Mr Napolean.’ With you gone, I will lose that one person who can call me by my name!’’ Something like this.

Mothers invariably play stellar roles in the lives of people. It is God’s will that a human being is still part of his mother until the umbilical card is severed and separated from his parent. In this world we can pay any debt with or without an effort, but not the debt of giving life, shaping the existence and giving an identity by a mother. So our scriptures edicted that even the greatest sanyasin who renunciated this world from all his worldly enticements will have one debt uncleared in his lifetime - that of his mother. Hence, he has to pay his pranams to her and only to her even after his dissociation with worldly connections. Adi Sanakara was the greatest revolutionary who did last rites to his mother after her demise – a ritual forbidden for a sanyasin.

It was Hannah Chaplin, the mother of Charles Chaplin, who inadvertently helped him find his identity as an actor. A deserted wife of a drunken husband, it was left to her to bring up her two children – Sydney and Chaplin. Later, when he became popular, with meticulous planning, Chaplin made all the arrangements to bring her to United States. A mentally derelict person cannot be permitted into another country through immigration. But she is the mother of an international celebrity and they want to make an exception. However, the immigration officials were forewarned about her arrival. They were all excited to receive her – as the mother of their great Idol. The immigration officer was all smiles to see her crossing the line into the country. “Well, well- welcome to United States Mrs Chaplin,”’ he said with warmth flowing out of every word. She coolly looked at him and said: “If I am Mrs Chaplin, you are Jesus Christ!!” And yet, she was welcomed into their country!

Whatever may be the station to which life catapults a person, only one audience undercuts the glory of it and makes him stand face to face with the realities of his life - mother. It is where the psyche of a person undergoes a metamorphosis and stands naked. Mother is an introspection, a reminder of his past, a signpost and importantly- a station where an absolute reality check is possible. It was Abraham Lincoln who said: ‘’I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”