This is a tribute to our motherland which is one of the most beautifully done performances I have seen done by a student group. Stanford has an acappella Bollywood barbershopish boy band called Raagappella, and they are awesome. They are a lot like Penn Masala, but I guess the sheer quantity of South Asians in the Bay Area have positively impacted the quality of cultural artistry here. I was watching them on TV, then I felt I should find some juicy you tube to share with all of you...

 

 

So in the song Vande Maataram, while the lyrics pay obescience to the motherland, the motherland is a plane in the overall spirit of nurturing. I listen to this and the original A. R. Rehman version and it evokes the emotions I feel for all the layers of mothering I have received and continue to receive. I know I am early for Mother's Day, but after the loss of Judith this week, who really has been one of the most consistent nurturers in my life, and one of the few people I moved out to live with, I don't want to wait to celebrate the mothering I receive. Please see my dance website, www.srividya.us for a celebration of Judith. I do miss you Judith. I am also going to add some pictures here.

 

Mother can represent different planes - what I suggest here is that these layers of nurturing exist all around us to comfort, educate, guide, mentor, feed and protect us. And these layers exist on the physical plane, as in mother earth, whose hills, streams, plants, creatures  and other natural resources feed and nurture us. On the genetic plane, we receive two mothers - a mother and a father (who by definition also is a nurturer and therefore, i think, a mother). On the authority figure plane, we add to our own parents, others who parent us - godparents, aunties, teachers or gurus, spiritual mentors, counselors, bosses, other authority figures who nurture as well. I also have this extended plane, which I am thrilled about - and this has revealed to me, the network of siblings, deep friends, lovers, neighbours, kind strangers, compassionate colleagues, even children and pets, who teach us, hold us, love us with loyalty and in this way nurture us. They mother us. My best friend in NY, Tracey, is younger than me by years, but despite the health challenges she faces, she mothers me. My own two younger sisters, who were born for me, who I love so much, though they are 7 and 10 years younger, they also mother me, as I mother them. My grandmother gets mothered by me... my mom mothers my sister's stepdaughter's pet guinea pig Brownie, who through the miracle of emotional connection, mothers her back.

 

We may be rapidly evolving to a transhuman state of being, in an almost quantum/nano world with logic at the heart of each decision we make. But deep inside, our flesh is soft, our hearts still pump our blood, making our brain chemistry yearn for something more than logic. We reach for each other, to feel, to befriend, to love. We share with each other, like two-way teachers. We need one another, for comfort, as we explore new phases of life, new adventures, new breakthroughs in the way we work... we need that source of safety to feel like we are still who we are - human.

 

This is what I believe mothering represents. And though I may never be a "real mother" with my own birth children, every one I touch will feel the power of my motherly love... because I am here for all of you.

 

Click on the music and dance along.