The Midnight meal by Amma

Making your mother smile is effortless. You smile, laugh, crawl, clap or even drool, she will smile at you. She loves you so much that everything you do will make her smile including that kick when you were in her womb. So which of the many incidents should I share with you?

Until the age of 8 I had the habit of not eating properly. At midnight i would wake amma up feeling hungry. She would make dosas and feed me without irritation. By the time she washes and gets back I would be snoring in my bed. Looking at that peacefully sleeping face of mine she smiles. Don’t ask me how i know, but she does smile. She always likes feeding me with her own hands and finishes it with her signature line ‘antha manga sadham kollara vairu thane athu'(u did have space for that food in your tummy).

Today too at the age of 19 she’d love to feed me. All that is needed to make her smile is complete surrender during mealtime. When i succeed, or win competitions or am praised, she smiles with pride and happiness. But a contented smile is only when she feeds my tummy to the fullest. She doesn’t want me to be hungry, me, who deprived her of food for the entire 10 months of her pregnancy. Now that is the generosity of my amma.

After a lot of thinking i chose this incident to share with all of you. This story is just one in a million ways to thank my mother who stood through difficult times only for me. She is the bravest woman i know. And all i want to tell her is

“Amma, i love you and your thayir sadam a lot.”