On Superheroes

We have all dreamt of being superheroes. Even if it was not a recurring fantasy, our childhood imagination would have perceived the sheer power and awe of being one.

How did I see it? Perhaps, as a chic woman with a perfectly toned body in the smartest of clothes who is a combination of physical strength, mental agility and the knowledge of all that surrounds me. Every relic, myth, religion, scientific and historical fact, Geography, Earth sciences, Maths, Weapons and Ammunition, even the Psychology of the opponent would be at my fingertips. I’d see myself being adored, loved, and even lusted for by many.

Yet it is strange how I forgot that even superheroes had homes, had families, had friends and also had to ‘battle’ with the mundane, yet ever challenging tasks life never prepares us for!

It’s was Sunday evening and I decided that I shall try to make the stir fried babycorn in the microwave, after all the recipe seems to be pretty simple. I mix all the ingredients required and suddenly realize that ‘1 tomato ‘cut into thin strips’ must also be added. I stare at the tomato and wonder how this is supposed to be cut. I proceed in a manner which I presume to be correct. Soon, there is this huge blob of some semi-solid red mass lying between my hands and I somehow manage to scoop it into the dish and put it into the microwave.

I see that my finger got a tiny cut in the process, and between cursing away, washing my hands and waiting anxiously for the food to get cooked, I ask my self why I never tried learning this earlier. When learning has been my sole desire for the past twenty years, how did I overlook this – cooking, tidying up after a mess, balancing time and all my ‘meaningless’ ways to let the very same time, pass.

I prize myself for being my mother’s daughter and my grandmother’s grandchild. I like to think I am less dependent and hopefully more responsible than the others esp. amongst my peers. (After all, I hear “Omigod! You live all alone- how do you manage?” at least every day.) I wish to be like Ma someday, to be able to handle a home, a family, a job etc so efficiently that nobody can deny that she is a perfectionist. While I would slouch in front of the TV and she would return from a hard day’s work, (that includes screaming at least five times a day to get the most incompetent staff to work) I would ‘sweetly enquire’ if I could join her for an evening cup of tea. Now I wonder why I never did learn how to make that tea, arrange the tray, wash the remaining dishes within five minutes- whereas Ma would do this and yet patiently listen to whatever silly thing I was saying!

I sometimes ask her – How do you do it? How does one multi-task without breaking down into a torrent of excuses, emotions and tears? Bear in mind, that there is no trace of her office disposition once she comes home. Her answer is always the same – “You just do it because you have to!”

And, suddenly I realize why the superheroes I imagined do not exist. Superheroes and Mothers have one thing in common – Responsibility. However, while the former is often glorified, the latter is often ignored. While the responsibility borne by the superheroes becomes their power, the responsibility borne by our mothers becomes their virtue.

While we never see our “superheroes” and dream of meeting them or being them, we meet our heroes everyday but never see them as they truly are- Our mothers, our heroes, our responsibility.
Our chance to become the very superheroes we dream of lies in an ability to first recognize them, then understand the enormous responsibility that they bear with those smiles and finally, to learn “how to do it!”

By - Chiteisri Devi