Some would call Sid a spoilt rich kid. He was not mean or hard-hearted. He had just not given too many things a serious thought. He was the cool kid. Hanging around with his friends. Aimless about his future. Having fun in the ease of the present. There was no time for a worrying mother.
His mother didn’t know English. She didn’t give up trying to speak in the few broken phrases she did know. School was ‘isschool’. She liked her boy in shirts and wished he could be a film star some day. He was handsome enough! She waited for him at dinner, worried about his exams, tried to cover for him in front of his father. She did what mothers generally do.
Sid failed in his exam. Had a massive fight with his father. Stormed out of his comfortable life into the unknown. Learnt the value of things. Learnt responsibility. Learnt the sense of accomplishment that follows hard work. Learnt he misses his mom.
Wake Up Sid is one of my favourite movies for many reasons. This scene below is one such reason. A mother sits in her quiet house flipping through memories. Her son walks in. A quiet private moment between a loving mother and a son who has come to appreciate all that she means to him. He comes in a white shirt for the mother who takes care of him. She confides she speaks English just for him.
Another mother, who doesn’t get a chance to finish her cup of coffee as her house wakes up. Morning tea and snacks for a friendly wise mother-in-law, tea and morning newspaper for her husband and finally getting her kids ready for school. She sells her homemade snacks and sweets. Laddoo is her speciality. She dances in secret with her little baby boy. Then waits for her husband to come home for dinner.
Whom should she share her sense of accomplishment and happiness with when outsiders praise her laddoos? Whom should she show her broken heart when her family thinks that she is only born to make laddoos? Who should wipe her tears when her own family mock her bad English pronunciation? Not intentionally mean, they just don’t see how hurt she is and how inadequate they make her feel.
She goes to her daughter’s English speaking school. Gets through the day with genuineness and dignity. Comes out proud of her smart daughter. She takes her daughter’s hand in hers and gives it a kiss in love. The daughter doesn’t see the twinkle in her mother’s eye. She only sees her own humiliation and embarrassment in a mother who is not as cool as others.
I’ll probably make my mother breakfast in bed today. I will go with my father and get her a card today. I might even get up extraordinarily early to call and wish her the first thing today. But for the rest of the year, I’ll try noticing her feelings that little bit more. And when I remember, I will try being kind, not only to her but the people around me, a tad bit more.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Wake Up Sid – Another Favourite Scene
Pic Credit Uploaders
very nice. yes, mothers… such a monumental yet totally underestimated, undervalued person, maker of the world. our movies somehow never quite brushed her aside, did they? even when we giggled at the nirupa roys and rolled eyes at the mother indias. happy mother’s day, spock ki amma.
true sis..Bollywood is much better if you asked me..in South in all movies they will insert a scene in which the hero worships his mother or fights for his mother..
Happy mother’s day to all the lovely mothers..
this post is very nice rhea sis..i only watched the second movie..i wondered to my amma how could the girl miss the obvious pain in her mother’s eyes..but isn’t what we all do in some point of life unknowingly..i remembered that day i told my grandma that she won’t understand how to use some new mobile application..i was busy writing my assignments then when she asked me..my amma listened to us and told me how i was not different from the girl in the movie..that was like a slap..i apologized to my grandma..i will try to be kind to everyone ..Thank you amma and rhea sis
Lovely one Rhea. I loved that scene in Wake Up Sid, touching moments shared between mother and son. Memories that can never go away. However, the equation in English Vinglish was very different. The daughter was rude to the core, till almost the end of the movie. Though out the movie, I waited for a rare moment when she would share a warm moment with her mother. But not until the end, that moment came. Mothers do deserve a little warmth, a little care from her loved ones. There is really not much they ask in return.
Happy Mothers’s Day.