When I ask for one spoonful of rice, she piles two or three on my plate.
When I ask for fifty dollar to go somewhere, she slips a hundred into my pocket.
Mother doesn’t know English!
When I say, “I hate you,” not understanding the meaning, she just pulls me close and hugs me with love.
Mother is a liar!
She says she has eaten, when she hasn’t.
Even when her stomach growls with hunger, she saves her favorite food carefully — for me.
Mother is foolish!
She spends her entire life running like a sugarcane mill, working endlessly to make the family better.
Mother is a thief!
When she hears I’m going on a picnic with my friends, she steals money from Father’s pocket and secretly puts it in my hand.
Mother is shameless!
No matter how many times I tell her not to touch my things, she still shamelessly tidies up my messy belongings with her own hands.
Mother is intrusive!
Even when I stay silent, she forces her way into my space and starts talking.
At night, while I’m asleep, she peeks through the door to check on me.
Mother has no common sense!
If she sees little food on my plate, she loudly says in front of everyone,
“My child, why are you eating so little?”
She never believes I’m healthy enough — not in her eyes!
Mother is careless!
Even when she’s suffering from back pain, she never goes to the doctor.
Yet if I so much as cough, her whole day turns upside down.
Mother is not smart!
She doesn’t wear new, fancy sarees.
She doesn’t carry a stylish handbag or flaunt a smartphone.
She spends all her time thinking about the well-being of her family.
Mother is selfish!
For her husband and children, she can sacrifice everything in the world.
Maybe that’s why —
we, her children, hurt her so often,
and still, she never changes.
Every day she keeps doing these same things — tirelessly, lovingly.
And once we’ve learned to stand on our own feet,
we start to push her out of our lives.
Yet, like a fool full of love, she still prays for us to the Creator —
every single day.
She keeps giving us love all her life,
and in return, she only asks for one thing:
to hear her child call out to her, even just once a day —
with affection —
“Ma.”
