Open Heart - PART 1 INTRODUCTION (Forthcoming book "From Distant Horizons")

This is about a strong, yet almost invisible bond between a mother & a daughter. She is always in the present while I keep going down the memory lane with agonizing nostalgia. Keep peeping into a future of which she will not be a constant part. For me, her departure to the U.S. created an immense vacuum. Despite several hobbies & interests in different arenas, I felt lost, almost cheated. Somehow I had never foreseen this. Never prepared myself for it. Never visualized my darling daughter leaving India. These things happened day in & day out, but never to me. My kids always will be around. They may travel abroad to gain experience, as my son did when he went to Sweden for a few months. How can they uproot themselves? But then, just because my roots were here, their movements need not be restricted. They were bound to explore more & more possibilities. Somehow when I educated them I forgot about the ultimate consequences. The birds were bound to spread wings & fly away to distant horizons. Those horizons, that were neither within my sight nor within my reach, for whatever reasons. It took me long to accept. Accept, I did, reconcile, I wonder.