Just the beginning of May and my mailbox is already getting bombarded by mails from companies that are advising me on how to make my mother feel special on the occasion of Mother’s Day (12th May).. A wonderful gift along with a bouquet or a cake with a wonderful card, would probably be it, I am suggested.. Really??

Mother, for most of us, happens to be our first “friend, philosopher, guide and more”, our first support system, the Angel, whose face we usually see and register first as we open our eyes to start our journey of life. She is the person who bears the maximum pain, be it child birth or compromises that she makes, so that we gain the utmost as we try to live and realize our dreams and hers as well.

Which mother would want her young ones to be away from her? Which mother wants an empty nest, a nest which she so patiently and with doting dedication creates? Do we ever think of it?? No because she keeps on aligning her dreams as per our changing wishes. She never ever makes us realize the whole range of emotions, anxieties and apprehensions that she has to encounter each day, as she sees her children grow.

Then celebrating a single day as a “Mother’s Day”, does it actually do justice to mothers the world over and especially Indian mothers? For people in the west, there might be a case to have a particular day to celebrate “Mother’s Day”, “Father’s Day” and maybe even “Family Day” because the concept of a family bond is not that strong as what it is here in India.

The concept of these “Special Days” though propagated mainly by various big Card and Gift MNCs, also play along nicely on the guilt feeling that many people might have because of the way they neglect their parents and their family. They see celebrating a particular day dedicated to “Mother”, “Father” et cetera as a way that absolves them from their sheer negligence that they show towards their parents and probably brings down their guilt feeling (if any) considerably.

By aping these “Days” blindly from the West, are we not making it very obvious that we too take our parents for granted for 364 days and try to make them feel special through a very phony and window dressed special, only for one single day? Does giving cards, cakes and gifts actually make parents feel special?? Flaunting how much we love them on the social media, will it make them happy??? I doubt it. Why can’t we make them feel special every day???

It is the simple deeds that are expected of us each day like respecting our elders, learning new things, channelizing our energies to doing things which are constructive, spreading bonhomie and spending quality time with the family, that culminates into us becoming a better child, a better citizen and a better human, which make parents feel special and proud of us.

Too much superfluous gyan?? But would not a Mother be happier with a “Shravan Kumar(i)” who makes the parents feel special day in and day out, rather than an offspring who tries to make them feel special on a single day?? But then, as already stated, Mothers are one of the most accommodating and compromising creatures on Earth and hence the answer might not be that simple and could even be logic defying.

On this note, signing off with love and respect to all Mothers, the world over!

Happy Mother’s Day; Every Day!!