My #RoleModel Grandmother - The Iron Lady

My grandmother and me

Guide, idol, inspiring - a mother

Today is a pure day - the day to celebrate motherhood, a day to cherish the gift of god that is a mother, a day to remember the sacrifices that a mother makes for her children's prosperity, a day to celebrate an idol in a mother - happy mother's day to all the mothers. :)

Today is the most fitting day for bloggers to let their emotions fly high and write on their mother but I opt for a little different subject. My mother has no doubt been the driving force in my life, she's been the support system that every child needs and I'm blessed to have a mother like her.

This post however is inclined towards being credited to my 'GRAND' mother, the very woman who gave birth to my father - whose been the motivating force of my life. My grandmother is a lady of strong will power and courage, more so when the situations are against her. It reads easy to you I'm sure but the sacrifices that she has had to make in life and the situations she has to come into terms with - time and again in life, be it being married to a middle-class family after spending her childhood days in her 'Dhesildar family' - which in the 1940's-50's were pre-dominant 'rich class' in India because of the British Raj which gave Dheshildar's the edge over all the villagers and no doubt, all the Dhesildar's were well regarded and very rich, my grandmother belonged to such a family.

From the stories that I've heard of my grandmother from my father - she was never restricted to 'dry fruits' and 'fruits', her family had genuine amount of land and were living a comfortable life, that too during the struggling period for most of India i.e. during British Raj. For such a girl to be married into a middle-class joint family, to a aspirant civil-engineer, the life to be led ahead was tough but my grandmother is a lady of 'miraculous powers' if I may say so, in terms that she always converts the odds in her favor - therefore the befitting tag of 'Iron Lady'.

My grandfather was a honest and blunt civil engineer, having 4 sons - he had to work really hard to provide his son's with the food on the table and a quality education, not to mention a good surrounding for his children to live in. This was made all the more tougher because my grandfather 'NEVER' took or gave bribe and this made him 'not the favorite' of his colleagues, who to put it delicately 'didn't give much importance to values' and hence my grandfather never had 'large sum of money' to support his family and it was the all the more tougher for my grandmother to answer to her 4 sons when they demanded for something - my own father demanded a expensive toy car, when he was around 2 but he couldn't be provided with it because none of his elder 3 brother's were - my grandmother knew that my father really wanted the car but she had to convince him with other toys, my father now understands how tough it'd be on a grandmother to convince his child for something that is 'not what he desired'. :)

My grandparent's for that matter never gave their sons any reason to complain, they gave them every possible happiness of life and that's what made their sons have immense respect for them and that's why I particularly regard my grandparent's because they went even a step ahead of their financial conditions to provide a good quality life to their children.

My grandmother hence had many obstacles in her life - be it the continuous shifting of the house because of my grandfather's movable civil-engineering job or controlling 4 sons which in itself in a mammoth task - but one thing I must commend my grandmother for - is her 'time management', to control such a big family, you've to be on your toes at all times and she always is. She wakes up to this very date at 6:30AM, at the age of 75 and sleeps after everyone's slept - that's how much time management means to her.

All this is even more inspiring because my grandmother suffered with cancer, just 8 years back and during the therapy. Before the therapy and cancer, my grandmother used to be the mother's you see in Indian tv shows and movies 'sweet, charming, bubbly and healthy'. In spite of the therapy though, which demanded a lot of physical strength and immense will power - my grandmother who even though is very phobic of hospitals, had the courage to fight against cancer and WIN.

Cleaning of the house, taking care of her grandchildren, children and daughter-in-law's and now even the grand daughter-in-law's - you can get a sense of how busy her life is but she has time for everybody because she doesn't believe in the retrospect of life but she believes in future and in 'warmth' of life.

You can get a sense of how important a grandmother is to her grandchildren by knowing how close they're to her. I and my 8 other first-cousins for that instance turn upto my grandmother for every wish of ours, if our parent's don't agree to fulfill it. My grandmother if I may put it that way - is the 'Godmother' of my family. For those of you who've watched the movie Godfather and know the importance of him in his respectable family - that's the sort of importance my Grandmother or let's say 'Godmother' has in my family.

Therefore, I believe this would be the fitting quote to end this blog post
- the only time a mother smiles when his child cries, is at the time of birth. A mother is a guiding stepping stone in life who demands nothing but is the reason for every beneficiary of her child. :)

I am writing about #MyRoleModel as a part of the activity by Gillette India in association with BlogAdda.com.