Chinna Chinna Aasai

It’s amazing how many naysayers mom’s surrounded by. In fact, she was one of them for the longest time - until she decided, a few weeks ago, to stop existing and start living.

You see, mom has finally figured out what she wants to do. She’s going to listen to her inner voice and dust off that dream, buried in some shady recess of her mind, beneath all the negativity and insecurity.

No, mom doesn’t want to become an astronaut and fly to the moon; she doesn’t want to be on the cover of Playboy or become a politician or a talk show host; and she certainly does not want to be the next CEO of her company. In fact, mom’s pretty certain that she wants out of the corporate rat race. The perks are enjoyable and the salary’s sweet, but she doesn’t foresee fulfillment in being tethered to a desk, attending meetings and responding to e-mail all day.

So, what does she want to do, then?

As she watches her Outlook inbox fill with inane projects and feels her hips swell from a languid, sedentary lifestyle, mom shuts her eyes when she dares and goes to her secret garden. She's in a lush, green pasture doing what she really enjoys - soaking in the sun, feeling the breeze ruffle her hair, curling up in an armchair with a good book, watching her children tumble on the grass, and mothering a menagerie of domestic animals.

In her ideal world, work would be a small aspect of her daily activities - not the all-encompassing undertaking it is now. Her life would revolve around gentle creatures, such as a retired donkey and a cow, a prancing lamb or two, a porky pink pig, birds chirping in the trees, and dogs with room galore to run.

Mother realizes that her petting zoo would require finances. Which is why, in her spare time, she will edit manuscripts for a leading publishing house. Editing is one aspect of her daily job that she's passionate about and cannot give up, to the point where she edits billboards as she drives, cringes at poor sentence structure in fliers and takes pleasure in turning syntactic garbage into veritable works of art.

Most people who hear about mom’s un-ambition have not hesitated to laugh in her face. “Get real,” they sneer. “Garden of Eden fantasy indeed!”

The only person who hasn’t mocked her is dad. A firm believer of keeping his opinions to himself, dad, who is not an animal person, quietly listens to mom’s excited chatter and lets her dream aloud, even when she derides his desires.

Some people decide very early on what they want in life. It took mom about three decades to find out.

And some people think big and want to change the world. Clearly, mom isn't one of them - she only wants to make a difference in her small world for now.