God becomes small before these great mothers!

Kiruba is a girl, we do not know the age of her, but she is one year old in her heart. She laughs at everything and she has no worries. Her mother is always near her, wiping her mouth, as she is not aware of the saliva coming out.

20 year old Venkatesh is taken care by her mother, she does all his daily needs, takes bath him daily. When asked the mother says, even for God, the priest does the daily bath, sameway, he is a God for me and Iam doing this for him, but only thing is that he should go first or if I go first from this world, who is there to take care of him?

We mothers say we take care of our child very well, but are we really doing those, when compared to the mother of Kiruba and Venkatesh? We expect our children to score very high marks than our neighbor’s children, want them to earn US dollars and burden them. The mother of Kiruba and Venkatesh are taking care of their children even at their old age and enjoying their small victories and lighting the life of their mentally challenged children with all their soul.

They say God is very powerful, but when these mothers stand before God, even God becomes small.

Poonam a Punjabi girl loved and got married with a Tamilian named Natarajan. They got a child Easwar. She did not even think that the child will change her life, not only her life, but through him many lives. He was a mentally challenged child. In the initial days, Poonam cried a lot and later came into terms and the reality. In 1980, she started a school in her own car shed named “Vidya sagar”. Today it has hundreds and hundreds of children. She lost her husband at an early age and lost her son Easwar at the age of 21.She is continuing to lit the life of other similar children.

Above abstract translated from Bharati Baskar’s article-“Few paths & few journeys” in Mangayar Malar Tamil weekly-2013.

The world has many Kiruba, Venkatesh and Easwar! These mothers ask God, why he wrote their history like this? Every life in this earth has the signature of the almighty! These mothers don’t get answers initially but later take this a privilege to take care of God’s own child. They love doing that and sacrifice their entire life for these special Childs. We do not understand his creation, Questions arise like -“Why the pregnant deer is a prey for the hungry lions”? We need to trust God for his creation of life!

I read a news long back, there was a running event for the mentally challenged kids. When the race had started, one little girl had fallen in the running track. Seeing this, the other children who were running stopped, lifted the fallen girl and came running together. The organizers gave the prize to all the team members and the audience’s eyes became moist. In this fast paced world, sometimes we tend to forget the basics of life and love. The mentally challenged kids have taught a wonderful lesson to us about “Love and compassion” which we lack in this fast paced of life.

Medical fraternity are renaming these kids as Intellectually disabled, medically defined as having an IQ [intelligence quotient] below 70 in addition to deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors [Which means having problems with basic functional skills that affect every day, general living].

The three major problem of mental retardation are Down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, and fragile X.

There are various known causes of mental retardation:

• Genetic disorders like Down’s syndrome.
• Certain maternal infections during pregnancy.
• Alcohol / drug abuse during pregnancy.
• Certain psycho social.
• Maternal exposure to environmental chemicals.

Blood, urine tests can confirm the diagnosis. Imaging tests for structural problems in the brain, or electroencephalogram [EEG] for evidence of seizures can be used as a tool. Although these tests may identify problems before birth, they cannot correct them. This will help them to be prepared mentally and to support the child to succeed at home and at the outside world.

Medical fraternity should guide and let know other parents of intellectually disabled children. That can be a great source of advice and emotional support for them.

This blog is dedicated to all such beautiful mothers in this world who take care of God’s own child. As rightly said, even Gods become small before these great mothers. A tribute and salute to all those mothers in this world.

The question comes in mind, why only mothers and not fathers? The great female Poet Avvaiyar has written in “Kondrai Venthan” அன்னையும் பிதாவும் முன்னறி தெய்வம் [Mother and father are the foremost deity]. Avvaiyar stresses mother first and father second. Mothers give life and fathers show the world and guide their children. Mothers know the pain and sufferings of their child in the womb. Behind these mothers, there are fathers who support them as well.

Note-The images given for representation in this blog are taken from Google Images. Many thanks for Google.