Mother's Day

I have a secret desire to receive flowers. Gifts are generous thoughts, but flowers are spontaneous gestures, I think. It may seem strange but a six-year-old Ponnu surprised me with wild flowers that she plucked from a hedge on her way back from tuitions. On reaching the door, she held her hand to the back and when I asked her what she was hiding, she grinned. After she came into the house, she put the tiny yellow heads with thin stems into my hand and said, “For you.” I was ecstatic and walked around with a smile the whole day.

On some days I received long leaves that she liked or white flowers that she found on hedges that were grown on the boundary walls of our building compound. After she gave me the flowers, she would stand to watch what I was doing with them. Usually I put them in a saucer with water in it for they were too small to be put into a vase. Some days, if I was too busy at work in the kitchen, I would take them, thank her and place it on the window sill. Soon enough I would hear a, “You are badly behaved”. I would then turn and hurriedly ask why, to which the answer would be, “You placed my flowers there and not in a cup. It will die without water.” I had to quickly tend to the flowers or I would have to hear the `You are badly behaved’ statement many times for days together.

I still receive flowers from Ponnu. On one rare occasion, I got a bunch when I came home at night after work. I was surprised and hugged her. “Sorry for yelling at you this morning,” she said by way of a reply.

One of my finest gifts from Ponnu was a couple of years back for Mother’s Day. In the evening when I reached home, Ponnu asked me to come to the living room with my eyes closed. I heard a match being struck and then she said, “Now open your eyes.” When I did, she said, “Happy Mother’s Day”. What I saw was beautiful. Ponnu had switched off the lights and on the centre table was placed a crystal bowl filled with water on which floated gerberas in varied colours. Between the flowers were floating candles amongst which were a few artificial pearls. I looked on at the beautiful creation and said, “This is super”. She said, “I got this idea after watching the Oprah show.” I just looked on at the lit candles and the flowers and said a swift prayer of thanks. I could not say anything to Ponnu than a Thank You. Words do seem meaningless at times.