Happy Birthday Mom

Today our entire family is celebrating my mother Pooja’s 61st birthday. To mark the day, we donated eatables, including ice-cream! and cash to institutions that provide food and shelter to the under privileged. But why give a special mention to ice-cream? Let me share an anecdote to justify the special mention.

Radha and I are nocturnal and often stay up late to watching TV. On one such occasion about ten years ago, we had the sudden and over-whelming desire to have ice-cream. As the clock showed 2AM, we we tried suppressing the urge, but failed, to the extent that from then on, never again did we try questioning ourselves whether to have ice-cream at unearthly hours.

Coming back to the story, unable to resist the craving for ice-cream, I volunteered to get it from somewhere. To be honest, I really didn’t have a choice as it was too late for Radha to venture out of the house. In exchange, Radha shelled out the cash, and even let me take her Kinetic scooter to get it. I had my own scooter but it made a noise loud enough to break the slumber of our neighbors and more importantly, that of our parents, and thereby putting our sinister plan in jeopardy.

Fifteen minutes was all it took for me to get the ice-cream. As we were about to unwrap the sugar goodies, the door of our parents’ bedroom squeaked open and mom sleep-walked her way towards us . We were sure that a lecture on the virtues of going to bed early was in the offing. But astonishingly, all Mom wanted was her share of the ice-cream. Ice-cream over, Mom stumbled back to her bedroom and dozed off.

It was so enjoyable that we made this a regular practice albeit with a small difference. Instead of two, I would get ice-cream for three as mom would anyway come to know of if and once again demand her share. I’ve always wondered if it was her intuition, or was it her terrific sense of smell that alerted her of someone getting ice-cream into the house, even while she was fast asleep. Clearly, ice-cream brought out the child in her. She didn’t pay any heed to the ills of eating junk food at odd hours. She believed that God created these goodies for us to savor, so why refrain from having them?

Eating ice-cream brought a twinkle to her eye. But what really satisfied her, was the opportunity to share it with the less fortunate. Rest assured she will continue to feel the same way, even if her family does it on her behalf.

Happy Birthday Mom, you were the best!

P.S: That night on her way back to her bedroom, Mom did in fact tell us that kids shouldn’t stay up so late, and that too for ice-cream!