Mum’s the word!

I don’t really believe in all these 21st century created ‘days’. Like Friendship Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Sister’s Day, so on and so forth. We had survived (no, thrived) before all these. But after their import from the West, all the greeting card stores, the restaurants, the gift shops thrived and how. Why do I need one particular day of the year to celebrate love, or friendship? Also I’ve always believed that doing something for anyone should be done when they least expect it. When it’s not an occasion. When you turn an ordinary day into a special day, no?

 Not that anything has changed in what I think about this, but a few years ago, on Mother’s Day, I’d gone for a wedding. On the way back, my friend stopped off to buy some flowers for her mother. And kinda coaxed me into it as well. I thought, what the heck, my mother anyway likes flowers, no harm in taking some home (irrespective of what day it was). So I took some  gerberas and went home. The look on my mother’s face when I gave her those is something I’ll always cherish. It was such a tiny gesture on my part, but made a whole load of difference to her! So the next year (now that I’d set an implicit expectation and you know how hard it is to escape these from moms!!) I gave her something…I don’t remember what though. And this continued (except for the times I wasn’t in town during Mother’s Day). Today, being Mother’s day, I got her a bunch of baby pink gerberas and three different potted flowering plants (she loves plants…anything to do with her garden). Boy, was she thrilled or what, with the plants! Worth it, eh?

I don’t think my mom feels happy about this because it is Mother’s Day. I think it just gives her a lot of satisfaction to know that her offspring (who’s quite lost usually) took some time to do a thoughtful gesture. It never amazes me how she can have the capapcity to feel unbridled joy about trivial things I do. I don’t understand this…she does innumerable thoughtful gestures on a daily basis which are taken for granted almost all the times, and I do like twelve a year??? How can there be such a disparity? That’s why she’s mom and I’m daughter I suppose!

God’s in the details after all…