I mentioned ‘Amma’ yesterday, because that is what I first started calling her. Well ‘Amma ji’ actually, as is our culture when we address elders and those whom we respect. Then as we grew older, we started looking for shorter abbreviations and ended up with Ma.

Is it not wonderful that in almost all the languages or dialects or modes of communication in the world, the word Ma has always denoted the Mother. I would like to believe that that is the easiest and the first word that a child forms, when it begins to address an object that it is closest to. And so it must have remained through centuries and continues to remain.

The human the world over has a common word for the one that brings it to this universe and sadly that is about the only commonality it has for the rest of its life. Family, environment, religion, caste, status, bearing, all take over after that and develop him or her into the human we eventually meet.

Would the addressing of a common word for the Mother not be sufficient to bring in all of us the spirit of equal identity. Why then do we all drift into regions and barriers and differences. And into hatred and evil. into destruction and chaos. What is it that changes the mind to think of devastation and poison. Of jealousy and revenge. Of dislike and disapproval. Of enmity and hostility.

No one has yet been able to decipher the cause, or find solution.

Yes there have been many that have struggled to bring sanity wisdom and reason. Mankind has happily converted them to saints and prophets, to gods and goddesses, given them places of respect devotion and divinity. Has created millions and millions of followers through belief. A belief of love and togetherness and of unity. But all that has remained in the domain of the sanctum. We pray in our belief, confined within barriers. Once out, we become common independent humans with all the failings that one can associate with such living life.

It has been the curse of humanity and we live and suffer it bear it, unable to be independent of it. And when we are unable to cope with it, we return to that one unknown force that guides our destiny.

In prayer, for peace and understanding. For equality and wisdom. For compassion. And above all for love..

Amitabh Bachchan