Around 20 years ago, I was sitting in yet another boring English class. It was the last period for the day which made it even more tiring. The name of the poem was “The Night of the Scorpion”. As my teacher kept explaining the poem, I found it slightly interesting and started getting glued to the subject. The poet’s mother was stung by a scorpion on a rainy night. The poet managed to explain the different characters like the villagers, who were superstitious and tried to comfort the suffering mother with their words on sins and previous birth; the father who was a rationalist tried a few things to comfort his wife; a holy man who was performing his rites tried all he could do. I could clearly picturize the rainy night the poet was talking about. After twenty hours of suffering, the poet says that she was relieved of her pain and she said,
“Thank God the scorpion picked on me
And spared my children.”
These words seemed too cliché to me. Somehow, I did not experience the emotions the poet would have expected from his readers. Most of the books, cartoons and movies I had read always showed a mother as some one who would sacrifice her life for her kids. It looked too dramatic to me. These emotional dialogues somehow had no appeal on me those days. Except for the last 2 lines, I loved the poem for its simplicity and authenticity.
A few months ago, I was experiencing an intense pain in my left ear due to an infection. My whole face was swollen and I couldn’t sleep for two consecutive nights. The pain killers had no effect. After three days of aggressive fight with the pain, I was relieved on the fourth day after a visit to the doctor. That morning taught me lots of lessons.
· Even if you are a brave person with a fighting spirit, you could become weak when pain strikes you with all its might.
· When it comes to “pain”, it is only “you” and no one else who will fight the battle for you.
When the doctor said the infection might be due to the salty water that entered the ear, the first few words I spoke were,
"Thank God the salty water entered my ear
And spared my children”
It took 20 years for me to accept and appreciate the exemplary work of Nissim Ezekiel and those legendary lines on mother’s love. All the books, cartoons and movies keep talking about mother’s love and her sacrifices, because it is so true and undeniably pure in its form. Another biggest learning was that, even the greatest piece of art, an awesome performance, or even a splendid poem will be appreciated by people based on their personal experiences. I was brought up by a single mother. So, imagine the sacrifices and love she would have showered on us. Most of us realise our parent’s sacrifices, only after becoming a parent.
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