*contains spoilers on the movie Thirike.
This picture I saw on Facebook connected with me a lot, so decided to write a little about it.
“Protect your loved ones”. Isn’t this what drives us day in and day out? Everything we do is to protect our loved ones. There’s a very thin line as to what we do is right or wrong when it comes to protecting our loved ones. What’s right to me may not be right to you. Well doing something illegal is not justified in any way.It’s just wrong. There’s always a legal and right way to do things.
This post is also a consequence of a movie I have been watching with my family, “Thirike”, a Malayalam movie about a boy with a brother who has down syndrome.
They’re Christians. They land in an orphanage when their parents pass away in an accident. Then they are separated because only the boy with down syndrome is adopted. The boy is adopted by a Muslim family and is named Ismu. The other guy’s name is Thoma. Years later, Thoma kidnaps his brother Ismu in an attempt to protect him and keep him with himself. This is where the picture I saw comes into play. What the brother did is right to him. It’s to protect his loved one. But what about the parents who have raised this boy with special needs. How can anything justify the angst and distress they are experiencing? I’m a mother, I know what another mother feels. Especially a mother of a child with special needs.
Don’t get me wrong. All parents will experience this same angst if their child goes missing. But mothers of children with special needs know that their child needs them every minute of the day because they are so used to having everything done for them by their parents. And the parents of children with special needs know their child cannot survive without them.
I shamelessly admit I’m a “helicopter mom”. I’m constantly hovering over my son and he’s probably going to pull a restraining order against me to keep me away when he grows up! :)
But all I can say in my defense is I’m doing my job, and that is to protect him!
I will give you an example;
My father in law has a delayed response time while driving, due to old age. He was a great driver in his times but now he’s 70 plus and should be retiring from driving. I have survived some really scary experiences when he was driving the car! Now, he loves to take his grandsons for a drive but I don’t let my son go in the car when my father in law’s driving and he hates me for this. Sensitive situation here, right? What I’m doing is protecting my loved one but he loves his grandson too and probably has the confidence he will protect his grandson lest anything goes wrong. But who’s to be blamed here? Neither one of us. Yes, it’s a thin line!
I haven’t finished watching the movie Thirike, so I don’t know how it ends. But hurting a mother is never a right thing to do. Because she believes her primary duty is to protect her children. You see this instinct in animals too; Like the lioness protects her cub and the mother dog never lets you near her pup!
There’s a thin line to what’s right or wrong, but I believe what a mother does to protect her children (unless it’s illegal) can never be wrong!
People look at me like I’m a psycho when I try to protect my son from anything I feel is dangerous for him. Very few can see it from my point of view. We got him after a lot of hardships. Calling it a "difficult" journey is an understatement! So I am a little overprotective about him. But that doesn’t make me a crazy person!
My husband has a better grip on things. He is braver and more calm and composed than me and I’m the emotional nervous wreck. I am not the best mother always but if there’s one job that I do right, it’s protecting my son and my loved ones!
“Thirike” is a gem. Please do watch it!
Beautiful as always! Keep writing dear Megha!💖