On her birthday....

 When I was younger and someone said “You are just like your mother”, I would retaliate with a resounding “NO!”

It took me years to know that my mother is the most beautiful woman I will ever know; that the first face I had recognized was of the person who would make me her world for the rest of her life. Some women are natural mothers, my mother is super-natural. No, really!

She is not the typical can-find-anything-that-is-lost, or the Bollywood inspired who knows when you are only steps away from home (which she does) but she's been unconventional in so many ways. She’s always been some kind of helicopter mother; and I had issues with that, obviously. But that is the beauty of a mother-daughter relationship; one doesn’t want to be anything like the other, while the other is always looking out to see that it never happens. “Don’t make the mistakes that I made” she says very nostalgically. But somewhere along this road, there is a chance of finding a beautiful friendship, of never ever needing a best friend again. Of never worrying about hurting someone so much that they would never speak to you again, even if they say so in the moment. 

Just like any two people who care about each other, we fight a lot, shout and scream. But the optimism with which we share office and college gossips later is a tiny miracle. My mother is the glue that holds our family together, a go-to person for almost everyone in the house. In a world where children should be tied to their beds in chains, my mother never said no for anything, all she said was “Do what’s right for you” . She is my 1st expert for everything, my first example and inspiration for carrying myself into the world and its wide possibilities. For what am I if not a summation of her qualities?

 Even though my sister still thinks I am 3 years old, my mother always treated me like an adult, but there are still those“You are still too young for….” arguments.

She taught me never to judge anyone without knowing the whole story. She never forced her opinions about people on us, she always says every person treats every person differently, a person can be good to you but bad to someone else.But what's important is the way you treat people around you!

I wish to be half the mother she is to me. To be half the friend she is. To be half the kind of cook she is. And with all those halves my children would be full lucky.

So now many years later when someone says that I am just like my mother, I say “Thank you!”