I grew up in a home where my mother was a stay at home mum, a homemaker. She has been a constant in our lives as air and water, and equally fundamental to our existence. She has been there to wake us up in the mornings, to look at our faces and ring the alarm that we look pale and making sure we drink milk or any other concoctions she mixed. She has been there when we spoke our first words and also at the receiving end of our tantrums. The fact is she has been there for everything and the picture just can't be complete without my mum and whatever the four of us are today, we are, because she gave of herself lovingly to us. So here is to mums all over the world! Happy belated mothers day!
Naseem, is a six year old girl. When I met her she was sitting on the charpoi with her mother and constantly clapping but without any mirth. Her hair was cut almost to her scalp. I was told that she was a miracle child, she had been suffering from severe acute malnutrition and her family and relatives had almost given up hope that she would survive but she had proven all stats wrong and was sitting right in front of us. Physically, she was on the mend but her mental growth had been irreversibly stunted. She did not respond to any movement, any gesture or sound, her mind was somewhere else... A little boy, hardly seven, sitting on the curbside on an otherwise busy junction but at 0100AM he seemed so out of place on that dark, deserted road. As we stopped at the traffic signal, on the road perpendicular to where he was sitting, my attention was drawn to his posture. His slumped back was towards me and as I watched, two cars stopped on the lanes furthest from him. He made an ...
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