A Walk down Memory Lane!

Date: 09/09/09

Location: Work place

Activity: Write an essay piece on “The Most Satisfying Accomplishment in your Life”

State of mind – Surprised that we had something to do other than our mundane work.

Staring at the computer my mind raced back through my mind’s pages searching for that perfect moment. Surprisingly, I could find nothing immediately. I thought to myself……what is the most happiest moment in my life?  I closed my eyes to visualise my memories, then there came from the depths of my mind’s black bottomless pit, emerged the image of my mother in eastman colour, smiling with tears of joy. Her hands pressing against her cheeks to control that plum coloured blushes rouging her cheeks.

I was transported back in time swirling through the mists of my past, so captured by the memory, I could literally experience the happy feeling seeping into me and I just could not stop grinning.

Here is a page from my history. Dedicated to the most wonderful mother one could ever have. Mamitha, this is for you!!!

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It was my mom’s birthday!

I had started my first job just 9 months prior to mom’s birthday. With the commitment of a student loan on my shoulders, I still wanted to gift my mom something nice and useful to make her life easy. She was indeed a supermom who did everything for us, nothing for herself and never complained.

My sister and I were really short on options on what to gift her on her birthday. My sister and I had been exploring the list of possible options for a good two months. The list figured quite a few enticing options like Spa treatments, massages, gift vouchers, saris, cosmetics……but nothing seemed to please us. Nothing was good enough for our mother. We had reached a moot point!

Then I was scanning through Femina magazine and I saw a whiteware advertisement. I got it! Eureka! Fianlly! Mom had been thinking of buying a microwave for ages, but never got around to it because of ever changing financial commitments. With none of us in the family actively participating in the cooking chores, and not being accomplished cooks such as my mom, we decided let’s make that job a helluva lot easier for her. We decided on the microwave! Something pretty rare in most Indian homes back then, as most people prefer their food freshly made, piping hot and straight off the stove!

So I went on a saving spree! So I started by cutting out my excesses and started a microwave fund. On the eve before mom’s Birthday, dad had to go out of town on business. Both my sister and myself just mentioned the birthday in passing the morning before, and acted very nonchalant the whole day.

Mom mistook this and thought we were way too busy with other daily things and actually tried not to show her disappointment. But the bonus for mom was all of her sisters were in town, something of a rarity especially given that everyone lived in a different town or country and all. We had invited them for a sleep over. My aunts were in on the secret although they did not know what the gift was. They were very supportive in keeping mom at bay.

I told mom I had to meet a client of mine and headed out. No car! Just my trusty scooterette! So while my aunts and mom were busy making dinner and swapping family stories, my sister Divya and I slinked away to the electronic shop.

And what a proud moment it was for me! I paid cash in full.  Never have I held that amount of cash in hand and that too my own hard earned money. I felt so happy. Imagine me with a smug smile like a Fairy Godmother smiling on her benefactor after the “Happily Ever After” moment. Well in my case, I had happened to be the Fairy God Daughter, minus the magic wand…

Next part of the challenge, no delivery options. We had to smuggle the microwave home and we had only the scooterette. So with my sister on the pillion and the microwave on the leg space of the scooterette, my legs stuck out different angles, we balanced it carefully and rode back home. That was probably one of the days that I appreciated the “no road rules” policy in India.

We returned home in one piece. And we had yet to smuggle the microwave upstairs to our home without mom’s knowledge. So Divya went in earlier on and started messing up our room strewing a bunch of clothes in a pile. We snuck in and hid the microwave on the side of our bed and our study table chair providing camouflage, drowning the view under the pile of clothes. Nothing seemed amiss! Just a typical teenager’s room messy and chaotic.

After this we picked up the pre-ordered cake with our nick name for mom – “Happy Birthday Mamitha”! That went into our next door neighbour’s refrigerator. Remember mom did most of the cooking!!!! She was sure to notice a box of cake.

So the scene is such, we are all back home, finished our supper, clock ticking closer and closer to midnight. My sister and I were hanging out in our room. My mother and my aunts were in the lounge talking away into the night.
I had sneaked over to my neighbour’s place when mom was not around, took the cake (fortunately a sweet neighbour who also feigned a headache and declined my invitation), lit the candles and entered the lounge with my sister at the strike of 12 and yelled Happy Birthday and burst into the Birthday song!

My mom turned shocked at the sound and started smiling and was shaking with emotion and all of us hugged her and wished her heartily. Mom cut the cake and fed us each a piece. I could see happiness and surprise shining through her eyes. Soon after Divya and I went into our room and fetched the gift. Was so heavy to lug around. We carried it into the room everyone was sitting in and enjoying the cake.

Everyone turned around. And they had thought all the excitement was over! We brought the box and placed it on the dining table. Mom looked poleaxed, stunned and her eyes widened and burst into tears of disbelief and joy. And she held her hands against her cheeks controlling her darnest to hold back her blush. It was clear she didn’t expect anything from us. She was crying so much, she was almost inconsolable. We went to her and hugged her tight.

All of our aunts were so thrilled and appreciated the fact that we had bought something so useful for mom. I can still picture my mom’s priceless expression as clear as crystal. Now that was an expression that I had never seen as often as I would have wanted to see.

That is the best moment I have ever ever had in my life. To see the pride and bursting happiness on her face that I had not failed her and grown up beyond her expectations and showed that her family cared for her very much. I think I’ll carry this memory forever.