your go-to person for everything- mother....

*Opens eyes* Ah! Where am I? What is this place? Why are there so many lights? Oh! Are you the person who gave birth to me…..my MOTHER! It's definitely my mother because of the way she is looking at me with tears of joy and love.

I spend the most of the time enjoying life with my mother to the fullest. Whenever I used to do something cute, my mom had to take a photo of it, so that I could look back and reminisce about those past times.There have been so many memories that me and my mother have had together. This day is not just for a mother, it accounts for a grandmother, an aunt(my Perimas, Athais and Maasis ), teachers who are motherly figures to us, and our mothers’ friends who sometimes mother us around(ensure our safety in the park and social media too).

The first moment that a mother and child share together is when the child is born. And then there are the loving memories of infancy and toddler ship. For example, our first steps with when our moms keep cheering us on. And then are the times for family get togethers' where the whole family is there and we are pampered by our grandmas and our aunts.

The next is Toddler ship, for me there are a lot of memories that I have, some pretty embarrassing but mostly beautiful memories that I will treasure. Like the first time my mother took me to the Playschool, while I happily walked in I saw her looking at me with so much of love and tears of happiness in her eyes. And then when we used to go shopping, I was hanging on the sling on her back while she bought the stuff. Whenever she laughed it felt so nice to hear.

Then the time for school came, The next best thing was when my mom started taking me to the park that I’ve almost grown up in, the memories from that place, whenever we used to walk together hand in hand looking around at the trees and flowers on them. When we won a game of shuttle or tennikoit together and hugged or high-fived. When we went for long road trips and then we dozed off in the back on each other’s shoulders.

And then adolescence came where I needed even more emotional support from my mother. Like the time when during the school’s Independence Day Parade where I was in the NCC march past, my mother was watching from the audience section. She was watching me with absolute pride and adoration. And then once we finished and were going back home she took me for a small treat where we talked and had good fun with each other. This is something we do quite often, for example drinking tender coconut water, sugarcane juice, eating masala Pori, pani puri- the treats were small but the fun was endless.

There are so many other memories that I’ve had with my aunts and Grand moms. Our grandmothers and aunts are the ones who are there with us when our mothers are not there to comfort us. So many gifts, my drawers are filled with gifts given by my perimas and the time spent together with them, going to the beach, visiting Valluvarkottam, going for LOHO college reunions, enjoying freshly bought seer fish only for me and feasting on all the delicacies made by them.

Grandmothers are what my mother calls "double mummies". which means that they go that extra mile to take care of us. Not to forget, the times i have done Yoga with my Ayamma and my Nani who is literally my partner in crime. I am one of the lucky few who has two Great Grandmothers always praying and watching over me. So many gifts and stories given and told and memories made. They are also the people who took care of our mothers when they were kids.

Our mothers are the people who always stay by our sides no matter what, from the minute we open our eyes till they depart this Earth to a better place, even then you can and still feel their presence as though they are right beside us even then. So on this Mother’s Day I would like to give as much love and applause to all the mothers around the world. ‘Cause they really deserve it and lastly a small message to my mother: I am your Squishy and will always be your Squishy!!!! I LOVE YOU MOM!!!

R. MAHIMA RAM

XI GRADE