Father and Mother

Long, long ago, there lived a priest, Peter Gilligan by name, in an Irish village One day, the weary priest had summons From a destitute parishioner, Whose husband, very old, was on his death bed. Tired as he was, The old priest dropped asleep on his chair, Only to wake up in the morning And wail ‘Mavrone, mavrone!’ He rushed on horseback to the sick man’s house, (Dead by now) Only to hear the surprised widow exclaim, As though it was the priest’s second coming: ‘'Father! you come again!' Aha, in an hour of need, God could send His angel As a surrogate ‘Father!’ Long, long ago, there lived A trader’s wife in an Indian town. A pious woman. One day she suddenly had signs of labour. Mother was sent for, but could not reach the place. Flash floods. What a pity! However, there came a woman, From nowhere, looked exactly like the mother, And did what a dutiful mother should. And the baby was born! God appears as a surrogate—in an hour of need. Now, ‘Father’ surrogate in one case. Mother surrogate in the other— Thayumanavar in Tamil And Matrubhootam in Sanskrit. Both are narratives, mythological. The long and the short of it is: God helps in an hour of need. Then, why battle hard Whether it is He or His angel? For a non-believer, Help comes anyway. That’s common sense!