Our Mother

Dear storyteller:

You tell your story well...I liked the langurous approach...especially as you have used the ``we` instead of an ``I``. It is also something that is close to us...we have just had a quarrel with our mother and are now typing this, wonderign what to tell her, how to say so many things...we have not forgotten her, but do we forgive for faults that are in truth ours?

Liked this passage: ``Our mother indulged in fantasies of escape as well. She threatened to leave, to walk into the dark night without a single look back. We protested openly but wondered secretly what it would be like. Would we gather and savor the profoundness of her absence. That heavy serenity that would finally keep us grounded in monotony and all the certainty it brings. Or would we have followed her into the dark fields of her yearnings, wailing and calling out her name. ``

Strangely, what I liked about this piece could become its undoing at some point...it distances you...maybe we all need that distance sometimes...

Best,
Farzana

Ferzi…as the writer says “Although, we daughters,…” I suspect the we in the narration is not a first person singular… also (again I suspect) the ‘we’ was woven into this fabric not tenuously but after deliberation…otherwise it risked becoming only her mother’s tale…the distancing makes it more universal…

storyteller....shadows and rumi reminded me of this Saathi Saya

lve,

t

Storyteller,

How we can never run away from a shadowing sky, shading comfort. How everywhere we go there follow brisk winds. Just her presence makes us believe in the certainty of bright horizons.

Peace!