Mom and the Dragon

So, an interesting conversation with my mom made me realize how little we know about our parents and this even after I spend hours at times listening to various accounts of her childhood.

I am reading this book by Shanon Lee “Be water my friend” (not the book in the picture). Well, this morning while I was chatting with my mom, I started sharing some of Lee’s quotes without stating his name and we were having all these philosophical discussion, and she goes “So, where did you come across these, which guru are you listening to?”

I say it wasn’t any monk but it was by a famous martial artist Bruce Lee; he was known for his quick feet and I started kicking my legs in the air trying to mimic kung-fu (which btw was more like me as kung-fu-panda). But knowing that mom hardly watched Hollywood movies, I did not expect her to know Lee. And hence my over exaggerated demonstration of his larger than life skill.

She smiles and says “Yeah, I know him, he was lean like an iron rod but so quick on feet during the fights. I remember him from Enter the Dragon movie.”

And I literally stop, my leg hanging mid air and drop my jaws to the floor. My mom, my orthodox South Indian mom who still does not support bread as a valid breakfast item compared to Idly or Dosa, with whom I never recall watching Enter the dragon movie; like wow!

Well, it‘s in no way a reflection on her knowledge, she is one hell of a person and has immense worldly knowledge. Just that, for someone who hates seeing me go to gym or hiking, for her to admire Lee and his skills came to me as a surprise.

And so here I was asking when the hell did that happen. And she goes “Our neighbour XYZ had got married that year and he had taken his family and friends to watch this movie in theatre. I was very young . And I couldn’t understand English as much then, but we were just excited to go to a theatre. Back then, theatre was a pretty big deal. Wasn’t there another movie called Return of the Dragon?”

And my whole conversation moves from one legend to this living legend in front of me. I was like “Mom, what else are you hiding!!”

Trust me, never in my life did I imagine that one day I would be having a Bruce Lee conversation with my mom!! Huh, Moms truly know more than they let on.

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