Mom & Me - Our Journey of Or & And

This post is a part of #UseYourAnd activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette Venus“.
  

There have been no ifs and buts , No or's and And's in my life. I have always made the decision that i wanted to. This could be mostly because of my upbringing or rather the type of people I have grown up with. I have been taught to be independent and be an architect of my own dreams.

In a country where in people want their daughters to get married , leave their jobs and look after the kids I was lucky to be born in a place where my Mom said sky is the limit for you. You need to grow and there is no stopping you.

My Mom - My Inspiration 

Having heard this a million times from my mom, I have seen her following the same too. I have grown up seeing her juggling her work, her studies and our studies. Right at the age of 16 she stepped into the big bad world of Mumbai. Doing petty jobs, she saved the  money and would send money back to her widowed mother and a kid brother. She has slogged to make a life of her own.  I remember my mom doing her BA studies when i was in school. I would see her studying along with me. She was married and had two kids but nothing stopped her. She managed her studies , our studies and our home so effortlessly. Not a single day i remember when we would go without breakfast or lunch . Be it 4am in the morning or 12 am in the night she would be ready with the food whenever you ask her for.

Being a mom like her is something that I aim to be , someone who encouraged her kids to grow and nurture. She loved singing and dancing , a luxury which she could never have  but she ensured her kids got a formal training. I remember her dropping me to my classes and hopping away to buy veggies for dinner.

My mom is an inspiration. She is a lady whom i look up to. Though she is old fashioned but her thoughts aren't . When my sister got married, the first thing she told her in-laws  was ," I just have one condition. I want my daughter to grow.I want her to work. I have made her an engineer because i want her to achieve a position something that I couldn't." Those words left me inspired.

She has always taught me to be fearless and do what I thought was right.When  it came to
career matters, there was never an OR in her life. She always suggested #UseYourAnd . 

 She told me you could be an engineer And a singer, A dancer And a Teacher all at the same time.

Travelliing for 4 hours to and fro from dombivli to Nariman point ,she worked relentlessly for over 30 years and now finally she has retired. Met me few days back, and she said "Retirement life sucks and something has to be done" Such is her thirst to do something in life.

Two years back , when she had been transferred to Delhi, there came a situation where she had to choose between Mumbai - her home where her family was OR Delhi - where her career belonged to. She asked me if I could take care of home in her absence. My sister wasn't quite happy with her going away leaving me and dad alone  but I strongly believed she should go ahead with her career. I felt i would be selfish in holding her back .She was the one who had never given me the option of career OR marriage OR any such options. All that she gave me were innumerable AND's in my life at the expense of her sacrifices. It was time to give it all back. It was time to let her pursue her dreams. My dad let her go too. She stayed there for 2 years and came back when she wanted to. I am proud I could do my bit to pursue my moms dreams of several And's.

#UseYourAnds  in your life and be what you have always wanted to be. Whenever you face a situation when you have to chose an option of the two, never bow down. You could be everything And anything in your life if you want to!

Do not let the Or's in your life stop you from achieving what you aim for...