25th July 2022. The day when it was decided between me and my elder sibling Lata, that our mother had enough of being a Guinea Pig at the hands of the Doctors who had put her on life support since 3 days inspite of all her parameters having gone haywire. It was a tough call to decide that she deserved to leave this world in a more humane manner than lying lifelessly in a hospital bed with all those tubes piercing her throat and hands and her lifeless eyes in a state of constant stare. They made us sign an undertaking for choosing to go against their medical advise.
That was the most defining moment when the significance of the term 'Guinea Pig' dawned upon me.
On a more broader perspective, life of an average Home Maker (in the Indian context) is probably a continuous process of being a Guinea Pig. Initially at the hands of her own mother who likes to play around with looks of her child as an infant and a toddler. Later on with the onset of puberty and as an adolescent at the hands of her parents and patronizing elders within the family. Post marriage at the hands of her husband who tries to mould her according to his desires and aspirations. Finally at the hands of her grown up children, as per their earnest desire to bridge the generation gap with their mother and find a friend and confidante in her.
While she may put up some resistance for being a Guinea Pig at the hands of her mother, elders of family and her husband, she rarely does that when it comes to her children and mostly accepts the changes that the children propose, though with some initial hesitation.😊
Talking about the term Guinea Pig, recently I happened to hear the same in a lighter vein, when the Yoga instructor for a batch of students undergoing Basic Teachers Training, said that upon completion of the course each student will try to preach their mother whatever they learnt about Yoga. While making this observation, the Instructor made a candid confession about having done the same with her mother and in a jocular manner said that our mothers are our trusted Guinea Pigs.
Though the term brought me the unpleasant memory of 25th July, 2022, I couldn't help laughing at the concept of having our mothers as our Guinea Pigs😀.
Reflecting on the term I realised that there was nothing derogatory about usage of the term for someone so precious as our 'Janani' (Life Giver). Because factually every child after having attained some level of maturity starts viewing the Life Giver as someone who couldn't keep up with times, probably because of self neglect in the process of providing the best for her children. And it is this realisation in the grown up child, combined with exposure to newly acquired knowledge about worldly matters, which prompts the child to initiate the process of updating their mother 😊.
While the child tries to perform every possible experiment on the mother with the earnest desire to elevate her quality of life, the mother out of blind trust in her child (being the hallmark of 'Mothers Love') rarely puts up any resistance for being a Guinea Pig at the hands of her children😊
No other person on earth will be a more willing subject for your experiments than your own mother.
Each one of us would have at some point in time tried to update the existing Version of our mother and surely no mother would have put up any real time resistance for being your Guinea Pig.
That's what pure love is all about I guess 😊
