Heartfelt gratitude to the greatest writer in the English language William Shakespeare whose poem “Seven Stages of Life” shows us a true reflection about the stages of life, where he has compared life to astage with a fixed entry and exit for an actor, we the humans.

The seven stages of life as stated by Shakespeare include Infancy,Schoolboy, Teenager, Young Man, Middle age, Old age, and Death.  For a person aging is a nature’s call, it deteriorates, but what grows isthe intangible emotions inside him, especially for the most belovedperson that is “mother”. The love and respect towards mother andmotherhood are what grows with his aging.

A mother is connected to the infant even before the infant recogniseshow blessed he is to be taken care of, to open his eyes to thisbeautiful world. All those days spent together mark the beginning of achallenging yet rewarding relationship.

This makes the mother happilybear the utmost pain while tearing herself apart. When the infantcan’t even talk and express his own needs, the mother hardly fails tohold, love, care, feed, and assure enough sleep. She learns tounderstand their unique way of expressing themselves, the way theycommunicate their need; which no one else can understand.With time when she is able to make her child stand on his own feet andexpresses his needs in words, the mother sets limitations which ismost cherished and an important part of everyone’s childhood memories.

The limitations in the form of dos and don’ts The child can becompared, as said, to mud in the potter’s hands who is responsible toturn out soft mud into a tough and shiny pot, giving it a beautifulshape so that it is able to stand with pride in front of all.4 She teaches the child to behave for the unacceptable behavior or actionshe commits.

 She shows her tough side at this stage when he learns to differentiate himself as a human among nature’s beings. She supports and guides him to explore himself. She works hard to her best to makesure her child is equipped enough with knowledge, skills, and abilities to make it a competent human being for the future.Then comes the third stage of life, “the lover, sighing like furnace,with a woeful ballad made to his mistress's eyebrows”, as said by Shakespeare. This is the period when the child is grown up to be an adolescent.

The so-called tender age where he makes a bit of a fool of himself, he is sentimental, sighing and writing poems, where concerns also include peer influence, bullying, rebelling, and risk-taking.

The mother is who tries to convince her child, she is able to understand his thoughts and tries to protect him to break himself apart. 

Mother knows from her experience of life how important for people to believe in themselves in order for children to be whole, strong and grow with a healthy estimation of themselves.  At this stage, the mother ensures she is the responsible woman who strains everything to ensure a brilliant future for her child towards the correct path.The stage now when he is young enough, she plays an important role in teaching to coordinate responsibilities. Unfortunately, modern man is deviating away from the concern for mother.

Today with the rise in nuclear living, gone are the days when old mother used to be held in high esteem in the family.

A child has grown under the wings of the mother to be a capable young man migrating away from the mother’s right on him to take care of each and every moment.

It is aptly said by Shakespeare in the line, “seeking the bubble reputation.” This is the stage when a person runs to hoard worldly affairs keeping aside himself from his aging mother. It is the stage when the man is “jealous in honor, sudden & quick in quarrel”, as mentioned by Shakespeare.

 The mother holds a heavy frozen heart to see his child struggling to survive in the world, to carry himself and the situations alone with his ability and presence of mind as learned from home and society as well.

The Middle age as said by Shakespeare, is “full of wise saws and modern instances”, where he regards himself as wise and experienced and doesn’t mind sharing his opinions with anyone.

He likes to make speeches. This is the stage where he tries to judge his own upbringing. Still, the mother tries to teach him to live rather than survive in the rat race and enjoy the life gifted to him.

Now the last stage when the child sees himself at the age of his old mother whom he saw for the last time. This is the stage when the uttered words of the mother turned true, that we can realise the feelings of a mother and her importance until we reach the stage when we expect the same from our next generation.

Now when he is weak and feeble, and expects support and care from his own children, whether he is fortunate to receive it or not, gets a flashback from the life he spent when his mother expected the same concern towards herself from him and how he managed to provide.

If it’s about to feel blessed and honored that he got a chance to serve her at her needs, he is fortunate, but if he has to regret that he couldn’t understand her at that particular stage where he is at present then she is no more with him to accept his apology, which she never even let him do with her kind, forgiving heart, and comforting smile.

It is accepted as a fact that mother is most important in everyone’s life, in the stages we have been through while growing up, and at last the challenges we will have to surpass as we grow up, if without her, in her absence. It is really heaven upon earth to savor the empathy and love of one’s mother.

A country can never be great in the generations to come without great mothers. On Mother’s Day, the mother doesn’t refer to only who has blessed us by giving birth, but also to any other special ones in our lives who have never failed to play the role of a mother in the stages of our life as she does. But it is inevitable as well that the relationship with the mother is a fact unique and incomparable.

(The writer is a Bhubaneswar-based architect and sustainability consultant. Email: ananyadaspmca@gmail.com, Mob: 7989072311)