Source: Humans of Bombay
“We grew up in a very liberal home. Our father was traveling most of the time and we spent most of our time with our mother. She was an amazing lady — she was more a friend than mother. Everyone in our area knew her – she was the favourite amongst all our friends as well. She would always say, ‘do whatever you have to at home…at least I know you’re safe here’.
The environment she created at home was incredible… she had an individual equation with all our friends and welcomed everyone home. Over the past decade it became a space which everyone could call home – whether it was our neighbours, relatives or friends. She was so compassionate that she once even climbed a tree to save a bat that was trapped in it…that’s the kind of person she was.
She was murdered on the night of November 4th 2015, by a carpenter. At that point dad was away on ship and the two of us were in London. Even though we were somewhere else, we would speak to her everyday. On that particular day she said she was excited to do up the house for Christmas and renovate certain areas for all of us.
She never once saw the bad in anyone, so she thought it was safe to do up the house by herself — but it wasn’t. It’s unfortunate because she was someone who didn’t care about materialistic things…and she was killed for money.
The rest of the carpenters decided to finish the job according to her instructions because she had been immensely kind to them as well. From these carpenters, to the person who delivered milk…everyone attended her funeral.
My friends have taken care of all the paperwork, funeral details and all of us because she was special to them. My dad was obviously devastated…they had recently bought a piece of land in Goa where they could peacefully retire, but that dream was cut short. She was the love of his life…they’ve travelled the world together while he worked on ship and he couldn’t see beyond her.
The only reason we’ve all held it together this much is because she would have wanted it that way. She was such a positive person filled with so much love, that it seems wrong to be sad in her memory. Infact, we cherish every moment we’ve spent with her, talk about her with love and remember her like she’s still around. Her Gravestone reads, ‘If Love could have saved you, you would have lived forever’, because that’s how much love she received and gave back.
Life is unpredictable, because at any point it can turn around but we have no regrets in that sense because everyday of our lives we told her we loved her…we’re proud to call her our mother, our best friend.”