My Mother: The Most Interesting Person I Know

We're celebrating Mother's Day this year by honoring our own moms here at NBC10. This story in our My Mother series is from NBC10 Morning Anchor and Reporter Aditi Roy, whose mother is not only the most interesting person she knows, but also her best friend.

From time to time, women come up to me and ask how I manage to juggle the demanding (and unusual!) hours of my job alongside other commitments and activities. I tell them what I do is easy compared to women who do the most difficult job of all: raising families. I know this because of my mother.

My mother, Gopa Roy, moved to the U.S. from India when she was 20 years old. She didn't know anyone besides my dad when she moved here. But my mom is resourceful and independent. While my dad worked outside the home, her domain was inside their home. She knit together a life. Between listening to her Carpenter's records and watching Reggie Jackson play for the Yankees (sorry Phillies fans, we lived in NY at the time), she cooked multi-course Indian meals, cooked, cleaned, found friends and planted roots. When my brother and I came along, she added chauffeuring to her duties, shuttling us from home to school, piano lessons, soccer practice, swimming lessons, study groups, etc.

She kept track of everything -- what we ate, what we read, how we did on every test in school and all the minutiae in between. Oh, and she made sure we grew up bicultural and bilingual. She taught us how to read, write, and speak Bengali. She also made sure we ate Indian food every night, and instilled in us the values she and my dad grew up with in India.

She never stopped working during her waking hours. In short, my mother devoted her life to ensuring my brother and I grew up to be the best individuals we could be. Somehow, between taking care of a husband and raising two kids, my mom found time to nurture her own interests.

My mother is the most interesting person I know (my friends joke that she's far more interesting than I could ever be).  How did the Lakers do last night (sorry 76'ers fans, she's a Southern Californian)? What are the best tech stocks to invest in? What did Beyonce wear to the Grammy's this year (yes, she even took my dad and I to a Beyonce concert last year...she also loves Rihanna). My mom could answer those questions in an instant without batting an eyelash.

It sounds like a cliche to say that my mom's my best friend. But it's true. My brother and I each talk to her multiple times a day. She lives 3,000 miles away from me, but we often go on trips together. In fact, my aunt once called us "Thelma and Louise."

Among all the things that my brother and I have accomplished in our lives, perhaps my mom's greatest legacy is the closeness we share as a family unit.

My mother never had to tell us about values such as selflessness, diligence, strength, and dignity. She embodies those qualities. She never stepped outside the home to work. Yet more than anyone else, my mother taught me I could do anything or become anyone I wanted. I would never have become the career woman that I am if it hadn't been for the example of my mom, the homemaker.

You can fan Aditi and the rest of the NBC10 morning news show crew on Facebook

Contact Us