Ammi Jaan -
To my dear Ammi jaan, remember when—
When you once caught my writings in school?
Furious mad, over the indecent language,
You made me leave writing on the whole!
I never wrote again, until now, now I write again—
It takes a lot of courage in me, but this one’s for you.
To the man who said to you that you did not raise your daughters right.
Let me remind you, he is a man. A man will never understand what it means to be a woman.
To the women who say to you that you did not raise your daughters right.
Let me remind you, they don’t know what you went through, and if they knew, and yet they say–
Their words carry no meaning if they don’t have it in their character to be sympathetic to womankind.
Our Rabb watches us, and he has looked over us all through out our lives. Trust your affairs with him.
For as much as I know you, as not my mother, but a woman. You’ve left me speechless –
For the timed education you grew up with, you are one of the most thoughtful women I’ve met.
And in the most beautiful of ways, you’ve adapted yourself to the changing times.
As a little girl, you grew in the best of what was provided for you,
As you became a woman, you molded yourself to the surroundings you were put in.
As a wife, you once again morphed your personality into what was expected out of you.
As a mother, you went back to the core of who you were as a person, to raise true humans–
You raised two beautiful daughters, in two very different times, while you grew yourself.
In the midst of all such changing times, you raised two daughters with the most enduring minds.
You raised two independent daughters, that know their worth, with self-respect, and not arrogance.
That know their rights, and how to navigate their fated plights. With their head held high.
You taught us religion, faith, love, and tenderness. You gave us strength, and a fight in us.
You reminded us of our position in society, but never let us feel burdened by our identity.
You made us embrace our femininity, in the most beautiful of ways,
You became the one we look up to, and the one that makes us brave.
You raised us to be beautiful, in our hearts, and to reflect that with our eyes and through our deeds.
You protected us, time and again, from ourselves, just as you stopped me from writing.
You taught me to sympathize with the pain of others, and here I am, hoping to give you strength.
For whenever I’ll have the courage to speak this to you, I hope I am not too late, until the very end.
There was a point in my life, when the essence of being a woman in this world dawned on me.
Times may have changed, and societies may have, well they say – evolved. But, oh to be a woman.
To be a friend, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a lover, a mother, a teacher, a woman. Oh to be a woman.
In spite of it all, twenty six and a half years later, it has dawned on me. To be a woman in changing times—
You’ve raised me as the most delicate yet hauntingly strong soul, and not one, but two of us.
I am proud of who I am, and as I am, and I owe it to you my dear Ammi jaan.
