The four incidents

                
“Will you read my palm also?”,she asked me.                 A couple of years back I with my friends and teachers had come on a school picnic.I then had read about palmistry and thus was trying the same on my friends when a teacher on duty saw my group.She was known as a very strict teacher but that day she was at peace as she sat against me and placed her hand in front of me.I got nervous as she repeated
“will you read my palm also?”.
I asked her that what  did she want to know and she softly answered,
“just one thing:will my kids be loyal to me?”.
And this question of hers left me awestruck,it sounded so touching that I could not say a word further.Her concern for her kids even at that place left me stunned and then I thought that my mom too must be worried for me the same way,infact all our mothers are,isn’t it?But how often do we realize this,may be on mother’s day?
Following this incident a couple of months later I had to accompany my mother to her work-place.In the lunch time mom’s colleague had got a shawl on order for my mom’s friend.The shawl looked really expensive with a heavy embroidery as she un-folded the shawl length wise for us to see and I wondered what a spend-thrift lady she was!But then she asked us something that moved me to the core.She asked,
“will this shawl look elegant on my daughter?”
And I realized that she was not a spendthrift lady but only a caring mother.
On that very day later I went to the canteen and placed my order.In the meanwhile I observed a lady in her mid-thirties,but the weird thing was that she was singing a nursery  rhyme over her cellphone. I later came to know that she was working there and recently had separated from her husband.And she worked to bring up her two years old son to whom she was singing the rhyme.
Nothing  unique yet in a way strange!Even in her absence she made her presence felt to her son,the delicate responsibility of a mother,how often to we thank her for this?And how often do we try to return the same?
A few months later it happened when my mother and I went to pick up my brother from the school.To our surprise he was not at the said place,we got worried and mom was all red in face. We searched the school area and at last found him at the back gate of the compound. Mom scolded him for his irresponsible attitude and in annoyance my brother shouted,
“mama don’t scold me here atleast.”
And a man passing by glanced at my brother firmly and said
“Boy,you won’t understand- she is a mother! A MOTHER!”
These four incidents are not something unique,but a regular stuff,yet how often do we try to understand the emotions behind them? I am not trying to force any moral lecture on you but how often does it happen that our parents scold us and we get angry over them,yet do we realize the sheer concern for their kids behind every word.And the incidents I mentioned,after being a lucky witness to them all I or anyone like me will say:
‘Maa tujhe salaam!’
And  the day we learn to sincerely love and respect our mothers  and return the gratitude towards them will be the day when we will learn to love and serve our motherland also and is this not the spirit of  patriotism every responsible global citizen should have? Just think and the answer is within you!

                               -SANA  SHAH