My mother- in- law whom I would fondly address “Ammu”, along with other relatives, bade us bye at the departure lounge of Dhaka International Airport as we set for the USA. I certainly heard other people in Foreign Service telling about a common agony in this particular profession which is that a lot of near and dear ones are lost forever when they were in a painful geographical distance because of overseas postings. In my case, I barely knew Ammu would be leaving us forever in this fashion and when I am on my maiden foreign mission.
An extraordinarily caring and amicable lady, she was like ready to give her everything for the sake of the near and dear ones which included not just her immediate family members but also the people who came in contact with her, some just by chance. From the subordinate members of her husband’s office staff to a luckier chap such as me who happened to be married off to her daughter –all have found her almost the same.
A school teacher, housewife, loving mother and grandmother all these identities did apply to her when she calls it a day. Her patience, an extremely down to earth approach as well as unoffending personality made her dear to almost everybody who met her. Consequently her sudden disappearance has created a catastrophe and, more precisely, a form of insecurity to the family members whom she left “disproportionately” dependent on her.
Yesterday, I found my wife at the other end of the telephone in a condition which could not be more shocking or confusing. “The only thing I know is that I go must go to Ammu as I can’t imagine a single moment without her”-she had been inconsolable. A child’s dependence on mother is constant and universal. It is just something that can’t be less or excessive. Wise people say the Divinity never created a need without a means to fulfill.
For my wife, for myself, for my daughter, probably for anybody else there is hardly a need more immediate to this. Who can precisely guide us the “needed means”?
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