This Thanksgiving I want to be thankful for all my blessings in life small and big, health of my family, my friends and all the love that surrounds me.  But I want to dedicate this post to my mother to thank her.  My mother is my rock..my role model in everything I consider an ideal woman.  She might as well have written an encyclopedia on strength, patience, care and unconditional love.  A wife of an army officer, she basically raised me and my brother alone while her husband was away protecting his country.  She has an indelible mark in everything I do and have done in my life.  From the rompers she stitched for me as a baby to the little frocks I wore as a child to every single saree I wear today has her imprint on them.  Not a seamstress by profession but she even whipped out bloomers with frills I had to wear thanks to the Catholic school I attended.  Her two children are her world and in her devotion to me as her first-born I remain the best.. no one can be smarter than me or prettier than me and you can’t even dare to argue with her on that point.  My mother is and remains my die-hard fan.  A fabulous cook, her love of cooking and appreciating good food was ingrained in me at a young age and the yellowed dog-eared pages of the recipes she wrote for me over twenty years ago are a testament to the fact.  She always has my back whether I am right or wrong and whether I want it or not..her strength and support are my lifeline.

The devotion and love doubled when the grandkids came along.  From the receiving blankets she stitched for my boys when they were born to the porridge she cooked up for them.  From the infant massages to the stories she narrated to them as they grew older, and she never needed a book to read from as it was all in her memory.  Every stitch in the fabric of our lives has been created by her and it blankets us in a cloak of love and warmth.  Luckily for us, she is just a phone call away thanks to technology and being the mother she is, she has learnt to Skype before her daughter, send Whatsapp messages and then there is always Facetime.  So here I am waiting to talk with my mother again and the conversation could easily range anywhere from her giving me a new recipe for chicken that came out “amazing” even though she has been a life-long vegetarian to discussing the American Presidency.  All I hope is that I can take a chapter from her book and do half good a job she did with me..