This is no ordinary story.It's one of those tales that can be spread out over years. an epic journey with an awesome beginning, and a brilliant end. But no; this one doesn’t involve a yellow umbrella. Kids, this is not the story of how I met your mother.
This, is the story of how I met MY mother.
Well, technically, I met my mother some twenty-two years in a spotlessly clean bright-white hospital room somewhere in the city of Bombay, when the world was actually sepia-hued, and kitsch was contemporary.
The baby’s high pitched wails had rent the corridors of the cold and composed neon-lit ward, raking through like thin, long fingernails on a dusty black board. The silver gleamed, as the surgical knife was raised, and with the finesse and clarity of an orchestra conductor, the doctor did the deed. The cord was cut, and mother and child were separated. The mother was she, the baby was me.
But I was wrong. The story of HIMMM didn’t end there. It went on, gloriously and beautifully. unlike its counterpart which sucked after season three. I, and my sister, for that matter, had been meeting our mother every single day of our life, unaware of all that she had been doing for us. Our clothes were cleaned, our faces washed, and hot delicious food laid out in front of us. We just thought it magically appeared, never giving her the due where she deserved. This note is for her, a woman. A matriarch, a daughter, a wife, an aunt, a sister in law, a sister, a niece, a friend, an agony aunt, an icon, and most importantly, a mother. OUR mother.
Mom. Mummy . Maa. Mum. Amma. Ayee. Mother. We’ve said it once and we are saying it again.
This one’s for you.
Dear Mom,
Today you celebrate fifty fabulous years of your life, tirelessly spent taking care of your family and friends, as a daughter, sister, wife, friend, aunt and ultimately, as a mother.
They might say that a child gives birth to a mother, but rightly so, only a mother can give birth to a child.
now, it’s time for you to sit back and relax, and read on as we celebrate fifty different reasons on why we love you so much :
1. You have always been a friend, philosopher and guide, and we gladly accept it.
2. You see the good in most people, and bring out the best in them
3. For tackling our bad behavior with a smile, and a sigh.
4. For tackling our worst behavior with a few whacks on the back. :)
5. For your pure heart, and the pure ghee you put on the hot rotis you served us for lunch every day when we came back from school, tired and worn out.
6. We know you will always be there for us and we can always count on you for everything, and anything.
7. For being an amazing mother, a loving sister, a caring daughter and a wonderful aunt!, and most of all, a brilliant human being!
8. For all your (occasional) melodrama, which adds some tadka to our lives, and makes Ekta Kapoor awe in amazement, and hold up a pen and paper.
9. For believing in us more than we did ourselves!
10. For believing that Mardi Gras beads were lucky charms.
11. For teaching us the importance of faith, during interviews, exams and otherwise. ;)
12. You can still make good friends - and become best friends with them in a few days!
13. You say you get drunk on one sip of wine,.
14. For being real and not really caring what colour your hair is or if your feet are pedicured.
15. For being the only sports champion in a family of lethargic, “I-don’t-have-a-sngle-athletic-bone-in-my-body” likeminded-folks of a family.
16. You work out 5 days a week. That's 5 days more than everybody else in the family combined. Keep it up!
17. Chocolate cake. Pineapple cake. Marie biscuit cake. Brownies. Mud Pie. Bread and Butter pudding. You can make any pastry chef cry out in amazement.
18. For all the childhood birthday parties where you had to feed our many hungry, cranky, snotty friends, samosa, chips, and a birthday cake piece, apiece.
19. For all the colorful gems you lovingly put on our clown-shaped birthday cakes, arduously baked in the oven, and decorated with the fluffiest of homemade icing, chocolate puffs and cocoa crème.
20. Because you are a terrible liar and cannot keep a secret. That counts for all those failed birthday surprises, or “Don’t-tell-anyone-else-till-I-am-sure” acts.
21. For valuing education - not just for your own kids but even for the less fortunate .
22. Because you do what you can to make a difference.
23. Because you dance, like there’s no tomorrow, even when everyone else is looking.
24. For your bargaining skills.
25. Dal makhani. Rajma. Bhindi. Pasta. And other such awesome things that you can whip up with your eyes closed, making our lunch boxes and tiffins the envy of everyone around us. We still love all those covetous looks.
26. For the long head massages and how they magically make aches and pains disappear.
27. Because you love unlimited buffets as much as we do.
28. For all your successes in the stock market - from saas-bahu to Sensex, what a transition!
29. For your marketing skills that could put Steve Jobs and Larry Page to shame.
30. For never stopping learning new things. Who says education ends with college? She doesn’t.
31. For being an adventurer at heart, Kashmir to Kanyakumari, She’s been there all.
32. For loving traveling like it was Rajesh Khanna from the 70s.
33. For loving Facebook like it was Rajesh Khanna from the 70s.
34. Because whenever you can, you forgive and forget, or forget and forgive, in that order.
35. For giving us company on the many walks to Siddhi Vinayak, and walking herself, when any of us had an exam, an interview or even an appointment.
36. for being the most tech-savvy mom around - by being glued to the iPad all the time. And she didn’t know how to switch the computer on, till like a month ago.
37. For force feeding us breakfast every morning, because frankly, breakfast means “to break the fast”.
38. for being the It-girl among your friends; the queen bee of the society clique. You've achieved something that none of us could! We trapaised the lower rungs of the social ladder, after all.
39. The cake may have 50 candles, but you will always be young at heart and in spirit. Ask us, she’s more active than the two of us put together.
40. For trying to read Harry Potter, and reaching all the way up to King’s Cross, just so that she will have something to discuss with us. She never got on the Hogwarts Express, but at least she tried.
41. For listening; even when we had nothing to say.
42. For giving up on her many dreams, including the likes of being a doctor; and a top notch one that too, just so that ours see the light of day.
43. for standing stall, when we felt short. For not caring what people thought, and going out and being herself anyway.
44. For doing all those things that mothers do, day in and day out, but only much better and much cooler.
45. For being so proud of us, and making sure that every merit, and mark is given its due, by telling the whole world about it, or anyone who would listen. Which, by the way, when she is talking, includes the whole world.
46. For actually wanting to know how our day went.
47. For sending us long, arduously typed emails, whilst we were away, telling us that she missed us; without expecting a reply or ten.
48. For trying to improve her English diction; right from pronouncing Luxury to McDonalds; and even pronouncing pronunciation.
49. for dreaming for us, and dreaming big, when we didn't feel like dreaming anymore.
50. For being OUR mother. We are pretty cool at being the best kids, after all. J
This one’s for you, Mom. We might complain, we might groan, we might grumble, and we even might moan. But we love you more than you can ever imagine!
Happy Birthday, enjoy your 50th one. :D
