Discerning the value

It makes one wonder whether you realise the value of a thing only in its absence.

It was a blazing noon with blistering sun rays virtually baking the body. And I was sprinting towards my savings bank since it was nearing closing time. As I was speeding through a stretch of particular road, even during those few fleeting moments, my mind started reminiscing those days, wherein the same street was studded by shade-giving trees, each with verdant canopy of lush-green foliage. 

Interestingly, during the times when the trees had existed, hardly I had taken cognizance of them, or their worth in proffering cool breezes around. Strangely, only while being subjected to the assaults of sweltering sun rays, was I discerning their value. 

Really, it makes one wonder on why is it in life that you realise the value of a thing only in its absence. Even something as insignificant as a nail-clipper or a hair-trimming scissor, you recognize its value only when you have misplaced it! For that matter, the worth of your computer or cell-phone you discover only when it has gone kaput! For, when these things are in fine fettle, merrily you’d have taken it for granted.

This is applicable even in the case of humans. When they are around, they are taken for a ride, and only in their absence do you feel that inexplicable lacuna or lurch in your heart. Take for instance the present day’s middle-aged mothers, who are more like the unflagging ‘care and comfort’ giving machines. 

In the earlier days, when the sons got married, the mantle of kitchen drudgery was taken over by the bahu-rani. The mum-in-law relaxed after having shuffled the entire ordeal of cooking and cleaning chores on her bahu. Today in some of the households, I see the saas-ma painstakingly preparing and packing lunch-boxes not only for her son, but also for her working bahu-rani, who leaves home early in the day, and comes back all whacked-out in the late evenings! 

And in the case of daughters, again in ancient times, once they were married off, they were busy acclimatizing to the new ambience and of course, to the new myriad miscellaneous grinding chores at in-laws place. So, visiting mothers was a rare ritual. But now I behold many mothers, from morn bustling in kitchen, busily whipping up delectable lunch for married daughters, who breezily steps in during lunch hours and zips off, at times packing dinner for their spouse too!      
   And the interminable grueling tasks of mothers multiply multifold when their offspring get their children. Except for the delivery part that is undertaken by the daughter/bahu, rest of the raring, caring, nurturing of the child are all saddled on the mothers again. (Sure if there had been this possibility, the mothers only would have taken on even this child-delivering task too!) 

Well, as children bask in the bliss of bountiful love/care of a mother, how many have been realizing its value? I hope even this they don’t realize only in its absence. Like the way I realized at tender age of 13 years when I lost my mom.