“I am a mother. Nothing more nothing less.
This is my letter to those who resort to abhorrent violence- irrespective of religion, region, caste or creed, to prove their point. I know you have a story. You must be having one, something that you really believe in. But I want you to listen to my story. I may have been living a seemingly insignificant life but I mean the world to my child and he means the world to me. You see, when I decided to give birth to my child I had chosen life over death. I chose to become a mother. That is the life I asked for.
I carried him in my womb for nine months and went through the most excruciatingly agonizing pain to give birth to him. I have spent countless sleepless nights and restless days just to make sure that he is alright. All mothers have! My story is no different. As I told you, I am just a mother. It is truly terrifying to think that you could put out that little candle that burns in my heart in the wink of an eye with the press of that remorseless button. My son, he could be playing on the streets with his friends or sitting in his classroom when you decide that you need to be heard and your story needs to be told. It is even more frightening to think that I cannot give him the promise of a safe future and that there is nothing that mommy and daddy can do to make things alright. What can this poor mom do when gun fires come raining in or when that ticking time bomb goes off? What can any mother do for that matter? We resort to prayers and religion to keep our children safe. I wonder, whose prayers would God listen to, yours or ours? I don’t know. I am just a mother. I chose life.
Since you chose death I must tell you, you are far more victorious than you think. Those death tolls and figures don’t mean a thing. When you succeed in killing a 100 people, you have succeeded in killing the dreams, hopes, aspirations and years of relentless hard work of a hundred mothers, a hundred fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and lovers. You have managed to achieve more than you thought you did. I hope your conviction and belief is worth all this. So, when you decide to pull that trigger, think of those mothers who are waiting for their children to come home or those tiny children who are waiting to be fed. We mothers have put in a great deal of effort to bring our children up.
I cannot see the bigger picture or the greater agenda. I cannot ever bring myself to understand why anyone would want to harm the innocent. But I have to tell you again, you have succeeded in more ways than you think. When I am having food at a restaurant or while watching a movie with my family at some crowded theatre or when my child is away at school or with friends, I am constantly haunted by the most harrowing thoughts during the day. And at night, the silent hunger pangs of some orphaned child in some distant land keeps me awake. You have managed to instill fear in the mind of every living mother. I am scared, scared for my child because as I told you, I am just a mom. But I hope and pray that one day in your quest for your story to be heard, you would choose life. Nothing more, nothing less!”
Image Credits:Nathan Via Flickr(No changes have been made to the original image)
Image License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Legal Code:https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode
