I have always loved how my mother was beautifully selfless and made sure she prioritises family over everything else. However, I think that’s what is always the quality of a mother – she is selfless when it comes to family, she puts forth family before everything. It takes a mother to change a house to a home. The word ‘mother’ is a synonym of strength and my mother is no less. She is beautifully strong and empowering. She is my inspiration and I always want to be her when I grow up.

I have the most loving father and he loves my mother more than anything else in this world. They have never left each other’s side and I wonder how amidst all marriages crumbling apart and relationships failing, they hold each other so tight? It’s lovely to have so much positivity around you every day you wake up. However, I know that something has always disturbed my mother. “Don’t talk back to people even when they hurt you, do not hurt someone even when you notice them hurt me,” is the advice I always receive from her.

This is the only thing I will disagree with her on. My father always told her, “There is no necessity to bow your head to people who do not respect you no matter who they are.” But her ways of upbringing were different. From her very young age, she was only taught by my grandmother that she is supposed to bow her head down in her in-laws place no matter what they do to her.

Honestly, I have seen my relatives stamping all over her, making use of all her energy, taking every advantage of her and finally just grab that self-respect out of her. My dad stood along with her and fought against them all but they would find a way to her when he was not there because they knew that when she was alone they could emotionally disturb her and change her mind. I was then matured enough at one point of time to understand what precious she was losing and I was ready to hit back at them all and I did that as well.

It wasn’t hard for me to back answer them and degrade them but she wasn’t happy, she was worried that she brought me up in the wrong way. She said, “Please don’t talk back this way, their curse might kill you and I am staying quiet because I don’t their curse to affect your future.” I was shocked at how her parents have been so careless that they made a well-educated woman believe in all this.

I told her, “Ma, We are human beings and to us, our self-respect and confidence is the most important of them all. They hold us together and keeps our head held high. I tell you when you are confident there will be no time for you to believe in all this. These are selfish people who are using you for the welfare of their family, don’t feed your self-respect as a fodder for their ego. To hell with them!”

She had happy tears in her eyes that I was strong but she didn’t realize that it was her own quality I inherited. She never shut my mouth ever after that, she let me support and defend her but I knew that she still has a lot of inferiority complex in her. My only aim is to remove it and I will at some point of time with my dad’s help.I made her read more, I made her decide for herself more, do what she wants and do what she loves and told her that it wasn’t a sin if she did not feel like cooking that day. We let her take every decision in the family and believe me, she is so intelligent but when we say that she laughs,”You guys are mad! Me? Intelligent?”

We let her make every decision in the family and believe me, she is so intelligent but when we say that she laughs,”You guys are mad! Me? Intelligent?” I know that she still has that little girl inside her who is breaking every rule and that’s when I keep telling her, “It’s okay, I’m there for you no matter what and you are doing great.”

But now she has made her mind clear that no matter what she should never lose her self-respect and only she has control over life. This story of mine will be quite relatable to most of you in some way or the other. It might be anyone pulling down your or your loved one’s self-respect. If you are the one or your loved one is the one then tell them this, “If you have to lose people because they misused your self-respect, its okay. You do not need them in your life.”