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On the eve of Mother`s Day you sit and wonder how do you transform soft copy (emotions, feelings, love, gratitude) into hard copy (an article on mother)? It is almost impossible. After all a relationship that lasts 365 days multiplied by four decades and more cannot be expressed by stringing a few sentences or a dozen or more paragraphs. I still try, for you can`t let that day pass without saluting the universally acknowledged and voted "Most taken-for-granted person in the world "- MOTHER

Erma Bombeck called motherhood the second oldest profession in the world. A profession into which you gain entry the moment you have a baby. No prior training or experience required and, more important, none available but you do get a lot of second, third and fourth hand experiences and a whole deluge of advice

Diving into my memory bank, here are a few snippets of Mother, the world`s longest lasting relationship ever, which no court order, decree or document can destroy, not even the brutal severing of an umbilical cord can achieve it. Even death fails to erase the
memories that go beyond blood ties into eternity.

My reason for existence what do I say about Ma that in spite of being in the depths of pain and despair she put up a brave front so that we would not collapse and gave us a lesson on how not to buckle under calamity. I remember all of us standing around her bed like shadows of gloom when Ma opened her eyes and said, "You all thought I had put on too much weight. So I`ve been a good girl and promptly got a breast removed. Don`t I look slim already?�

I also remember the night she crept out into the garden, defying Dad`s order to "let that yelping pup and Rita spend the night out,� and ushered us into the kitchen and gave me my first lesson on negotiating difficult deals right time right mood, etc.

Makes me smile when I think of the time she helped me turn into a glowing ghost (by inserting a pencil torch in my mouth, covering me with a black shawl) and show my nasty cousin as the true cowardly bully she was.

I remember the glow of happiness on her face when she held my baby (adopted) and commented, "See, isn`t she a beauty? I am glad you didn`t make her, you couldn`t have made a prettier one than my granddaughter.� She was the one who taught me that `Sweet are the uses of adversity for you can even learn sermons in stone`

There were many occasions when she soothed me with her patience, dispelled my fears, gave me reassurance that things would be fine, taught me how to battle the threshold of pain, or was simply there for me. Two of her most favourite quotes she left for us:

* Two men looked out of prison bars;
One saw mud, the other stars.

* I was grumbling because I had no shoes
Till I met a man who had no feet.

Her own description of mother was `One, who like the incense stick placed at the altar burns away but leaves behind an everlasting fragrance`.

After all what is a mother but a person who:
Opens your eyes to the magic of fairy tales
Makes the house smell heavenly with her cooking
Makes the hurt go away
In short, one who rubs out the harsh edges of life for you and makes
it bearable.

To my mother then, a big THANK YOU for always being there. She
taught us three fledglings, how to live, how to fly
And having done that she quietly slipped away six years ago
To join God and take permanent residence in the sky.

Daughters change to wives and then into mothers and thru it all the universal love of a mother shadows her thru the myriad changes her little girl goes thru.