For a long time the only day I celebrated my mother was on her birthday. I would spend days writing poems, saving up money to buy her cards, chocolates and flowers or do something special for her. In my growing up years, Mother's Day did not exist. It came much later, along with the wisdom of how much a mother does for her children and that her sacrifices and unconditional love either go unnoticed or are taken for granted. The only other place which celebrated mothers was Bollywood movies and their highly emotional songs. Archies greeting cards was a close competitor.
But now, Mother's Day is a universal celebration. The second Sunday of May is one day where my phone will buzz with non-stop messages and videos about the significance of it. Let me be honest. Being a mother myself, I also look forward to this day. Even if some of the messages that I get on my phone are repetitive or a little too flowery, I enjoy reading them. I find myself nodding in agreement to some of the quotes or feeling my heart tug at the lyrics in a song or the dialogue in a video because it captures my experience in a nutshell.
The one thing that I love about Mother's day are the twin memories that it generates in my brain. Fond memories of the golden times that I spent with my mother as a child and the precious moments of my motherhood. I remember loving and hating my mother's cooking according to my mood swings, admiring the grace and elegance with which she carried herself, taking pride in the classy taste of her saris and her creativity with jewelry and interior decoration, laughing at her emotional outbursts when she watched movies (Now I react in the exact same way), arguing over things that hardly mattered, grumpily going to my music class (which I am now thankful for) wishing I had her green thumb and loving her much more than I tell her.
Similar emotions run out as I think of my teenage son. Our days of struggle when he was in the NICU to the young man he is growing up to be. I find joy in my countless trips down memory lane admiring his baby pictures and videos, soaking in his adorable smile, his non-stop lively chatter, the warmth of feeling his chubby arms around me, fast forward to his teenage years where he thinks he is all grown up, but I know that he is still growing.
I like that Mother's Day has the potential to generate moments that make our hearts melt and stretch our smiles for miles. For me, Mother's day is not a day to remind us that we are awesome moms or that we are doing a great job, because we would still do it, without changing anything about ourselves. But it's a day that allows the world to see how we feel and let's us see how the world feels about us. Happy Mother's Day 
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