Courage! Mother Courage

She epitomizes many ‘godly’ qualities

Though they come handy, we don’t always need touching lines of the song from Taray Zameen Par or Maa tujhay salaam for eulogizing mother—biological or symbolical. Creator in her own unique way, mother epitomizes many godly qualities that father has neither been bequeathed nor developed in this evolutionary mode of our existence. History in general reveals that in male dominated setups due share and recognition has not been accorded to her and the role she plays till her last breath isn’t always appreciated. Things are changing yet still short of the place she deserves. Bigoted men driven by gender bias do not even fully appreciate those courageous moments when the so-called sanfe naazok surprisingly unleashes her strength in the wake of tragedies— natural or man-made, that befall humans, at individual or collective level, especially in dark times like this when Yumraj frequents for his pick; even at unexpected festive times though appeased by many with prefixes like 'yummy'.

John Millington Synge

Universal appeal, timelessness, adaptability and relevance to the pulsating moments and issues that can be read in some works of literature astounds readers as well as spectators of the exemplary one act play, Riders To The Sea, written in 1902 by the Irish playwright and co-founder of the Abbey Theatre- John Millington Synge (1871-1909) who studied theatre and music in Germany, Paris, Italy and London and gave to the world of creative literature many masterpieces; though he lived just for 38 years and suffered from cancerous Hodgkins disease. The play has a historic value as well. The Aran Islands from which Synge gained his inspiration, were losing that sense of isolation and self-dependence when he visited the place.

Lonely men live and die.
Peace that surpasses understanding comes after the storm
Mothers, wives and sisters live on in loneliness.

Riders to the Sea is one of the best modern tragedies in English language that portrays stylized realism of theatre and masters like Samuel Beckett owe much to the widely admired Synge. The scene of the play is set in a cottage where story of a native’s body washed one day off the coast was actually heard by Synge, during his stay in the Islands. Conversation between elderly lady Maurya, and Nora and Cathleen reveals how the highly developed civilization of ours is losing sight of primal emotions. It is ironic that we human beings get used to speaking of death like news item and here in Kashmir past two decades have made us insensitive.

Who can forget mother Maurya of the said play and who can fail to see a number of such white haired mothers living in our neighborhoods, even in our home or homeland- Kashmir. We can draw parallels in day to day happenings around. One can change primal forces/ power of the sea beyond the Aran Islands of the play to powers that be-in civvies or in uniform, belonging to one group or the other; visible, hidden, behind the screen, in the wings, masked or brazen faced. Name of the sufferer or perpetuator doesn’t matter if we speak from a higher plane, even cause and the causality matters little; whether calamity or crime makes little difference, the point to ponder is where we humans have got stuck. 

In his unique way Synge worked for the regeneration cause of Ireland- differing from revolutionary and semi-military movement. He was described as enigmatic person- hard to understand, even by his family members and even by his female friend, Allgood- the actress. Nationalists attacked Riders To The Sea, others decried it because of the authors attitude to God and religion; Synge had abandoned the Protestant religion. 

Sara Allgood as Maurya

J.M.Synge based the play on a story heard in 1902 in Aran Islands- where he spent five summers on the suggestion of W.B Yeats who met him in 1896, and wove out of it the fishing out of dead human bodies and their burial preparation by the surviving females of the house, led by mother Maurya. Aptly Yeats wrote:

 “And that enquiring man John Synge comes next
That dying chose the living world for text
And never could have rested in the tomb
…. Passionate & simple like his heart”

The play depicts the dumb tragedy of a helpless mother who consigns herself to fatalistic submission: By the grace of Almighty God, Michael has a clean burial, Bartley will have a fine coffin and a deep grave, surely what more can we want than that… but momentarily defiant moment does flare up: They are all gone now and there isn’t anything more the sea can do to me ….-examples whereof we Kashmiris have found in past eighty years. To conclude let me quote Maurya’s prayer in the play; echo whereof is, surprisingly, often found in this land of ours too;

May Almighty God have mercy on Bartley’s soul, Micheal’s …. On my soul…Noras .. and of.. everyone left living in the world.

Tail piece: Life is for living O’ young people of my motherland, why fill her eyes with tears, who gave you birth and lovely smiles too. Watch out, Vampires lurking at every step of pulpits.

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