he Oscars make quite a buzz around the world every time they take place. Like all movie fanatics, I tuned into the highlights after the show. How dare I call myself a fanatic and not watch the whole award show? Well, no one has the time to watch all of it. Even Tom Cruise, who brought cinema back to life with Top Gun Maverick, wasn’t attending the exhausting whole-day event. Though I have to say, no Oscars ceremony will ever be as ‘dramatic’ as last year’s. Jimmy Kimmel, the host of the 95th Oscars (this year), even made a sarcastic announcement that anybody who committed an act of violence in the theatre would get the award for best actor and be permitted to give a 19-minute speech.

But I’m not discussing the Oscars to take a jab at Will Smith. It just feels like a crime not to talk about it. Now that I have that out of the way, I want to bring your attention to another thing. Scrolling through the Oscars archives, I came upon a 40-second reel showing 25 actors in the midst of their acceptance speeches. From the likes of Sandra Bullock and Denzel Washington to this year’s most-seen clip of Ke Huy Quan exclaiming, “Mom! I just won an Oscar!” as he trembled and broke down in tears, everyone in that reel was praising their mothers.

It’s no surprise how our mothers are responsible for so much of our growth. But seeing such accomplished people at the top of their careers bestow all their achievements in gratitude to their mother’s efforts was majestic. I saw every one of them, and I saw every one of them turn into a different person when they thanked their mothers. It was like the child in them came out. Like a child who screams and runs with excitement towards their mother, they did, too, on the Academy Awards stage.

What a moment. And what transcendental importance our mothers hold in our lives. Every feat we achieve is because of them. They build and shape who we are. I, too, vividly remember the first time I wrote something. My mother and I were travelling on the Islamabad Expressway, and I said to her that I felt rhymes coming to my mind. I didn’t then understand what that meant, but she did. She immediately pulled out a paper and a pen from the glove compartment and asked me to write whatever it was. Throughout the rest of the ride, she remained silent. It was something I hadn’t ever experienced before. That was the day I wrote my first poem. As the years went by, I became a regular writer of poetry. It used to dawn on me and I would pen it down. Several career shifts later, today, I’m a full-time writer. That moment with my mother shaped the course of my life.

Mothers shape who we are and give us the confidence we need to become one with our souls. The nourishment, encouragement and energy they feed us take us far in our lives. It’s easy to miss out on it since it’s happening so subtly. It is the way of nature; it has been since the beginning of time. Steven Spielberg, the only film director to be nominated for an Oscar in six decades, last year came up with a masterpiece based on his own life. The film was bout his path to becoming a director. At its centre, it fixated on his mother and how her efforts.

Grit and perseverance lead us to where we arrive in the end, but at the background of it all are our mothers who nourish us and root for us throughout our flight. Say it with me now: Mom, you’ve made me who I am today.

The writer is an ex-serviceman and a freelancer. He can be reached at shaafayzia@gmail.com