My Super Mother

They say mothers are also humans… but mine is super human.

I still can recall the evening when my matric exam results were expected… but as I learned, the newspapers got those an evening earlier. So I rented a bicycle and reached Al-Razi  Road where there used to be located the office of Aghaz news paper. Sooner than I gave my exam roll number, I was given the best news. I had to ride back fast and there, with his head out the window, my abba inquired by waving his hands in query: "What happened?" Immediately raising the right index finger, I answered 1^st div. I just couldn’t wait to reach the house and as we had a tradition, each one of us, after exam results would go to our grandma for her blessing… and in turn will have everyone eat mithai on his/her behalf… and a garland of flowers around the neck, what a joyful moment it used to be.

And last Friday on June the 7^th, I felt the whole world just raced through 40 years on fast-track! My son Mohammed Asim passed his final BE exam. I guess I knew his result details before he did…thanks to technology of internet. I kept the tradition…I have been doing whenever my kids pass their finals…..took my son to ammi (his grandma) and we both sat close to her… She only talks to my kids when they are sitting in front of her… and tells me to keep shut. But on this occasion, I spoke before she could ask, "Asim, what is he studying?" her most favorite question to all her grandchildren… I gave her the news: "Ammi, Asim has become an engineer… He passed his final exam from NED." And the delight on her face was treasure to watch…she spread her both hands and raised them towards roof… "Allah tera lakh lakh shukr hai," she said. She toiled for us all her life, just to see us get top education… and now she lives to see our kids do the same. She had the faith… in Allah the Almighty. It has been this faith inherited from my ammi that kept us all going. You don’t need any treasure to get to your goals - only a super human mother can give this faith. And she has been … and she sang an old song from her pre-partition days of youth… amazing … At 76 she still remembers the lyrics so perfectly and her vocals! I wonder… wait till I write of her recipes and foods she used to cook.

Only garland and mithai missing this time around..but she ate the sweet juicy mango I offered.