CHAPTER 2 – A Day Spent on Celebrating the Mother's Day
Bubbles and Buttons were locked
in their rooms and were very busy throughout the day. The day didn’t turn out
to be the same as they had initially planned. In weekends, they prefer to sit
at the living room and be close to their parents. Since the lockdown due to
global pandemic, their parents have been at home. But they were very busy doing
their office work during weekdays. Weekends were the only time when Bubbles and
Buttons got undivided attention from their parents. Bubbles and Buttons have never
been the ones who threw tantrums. They often understood the priorities and were
mostly happy to be engaged in doing what they like. Of course, their
grandparents never missed a moment to pamper them whenever possible.
Across the lunch they heard their
dad saying, “I completely forgot – Its International Mother’s Day. Most of my
friends and colleagues have posted pictures of their mothers in WhatsApp and
Instagram wishing them and thanking them”. Their mother added, “oh right, I also
saw them”. That’s how Bubbles and Buttons were introduced to the concept of the
International Mother’s Day.
“What exactly is that appa” asked
Bubbles curiously.
“Second Sunday of every May is
celebrated as the International Mothers’ Day. Children seize this opportunity to
thank their mothers”, appa said.
Bubbles and Buttons looked at each
other as if sharing some notes through telepathy. They almost became restless
by the time they finished their lunch. Their grandparents were napping by then.
Appa was planning to watch some movie and amma was complaining that she is bored,
as usual. Bubbles and Buttons excused themselves lying that they are feeling
sleepy and rushed to their room.
“We should do something special to
celebrate Mother’s Day”, declared Buttons.
“I can’t agree more. We should
thank amma for just being amma. Isn’t she a superhero?” echoed Bubbles. “How
about a greeting card?” she added.
“That is so blah. Come on, you could
think better”, said Buttons.
“Why don’t you suggest something
amazing if my idea is soooooooo BLAH”, said Bubbles.
“Come on Bubbles, let’s not fight.
Greeting card is a good idea. But we should do something unique. Something
different. That’s what I meant”, Buttons clarified.
“Alright, how about infinity greeting
card?” Bubbles declared with a glint in her eyes after few moments of serious
thoughts.
“A what?” Buttons sounded
confused.
“Basically, it’s a card within a
card within a card. Its so cool. I learned to make it from a YouTube video. All
we need is a colour paper…”
“Which we have”, Buttons
interrupted as if he is checking some list in his mind already. “How about
yellow? Or can we paste one colour paper over other”
“Of course. That’s a great idea.
But could become too complicated. We could always try”, continued Bubbles. “Then
we need to doodle something, write something and tada! We will have this amazing
card”
“While presenting, we could tell
amma that we made infinity greeting card to celebrate her infinite love”, said
Buttons.
“Great! Looks like you are good
with words today. You come up with ideas that we could write in the card. I
will make the card. Then we both could write and maybe draw something. That’s it.
Simple!”, Bubble said.
Bubbles effectively made the
infinity card. They doodled little flowers, books, dresses, paint brushes, and
sticky figures of their family in the card - everything that their mother is fond
of. Then they added ‘We Love You Amma’, ‘You are the Best’ and ‘Our Cute Angel’
in the card. They decided to write a little poem too. They agreed that the last
words of each line should rhyme. And the struggle began. If Bubbles liked
something, Buttons did not. Until then, they worked as a team. With the poem
idea, the teamwork seemed to have become a truth of yesterday. They fought so
much that they almost decided to give up the Mother’s Day gift. They went to
distant corners of the room and sulked for some time.
“Don’t you think we could be better
behaved than this”, Bubbles broke the silence.
“I agree. We are wasting time. We
should complete this. Otherwise it will be too late for this Mother’s Day”, said
Buttons
“And too early for next!” Bubbles
said and they both high-fived.
“Let’s do this, you write first 4
lines. And I will write the next four”, Buttons declared with a proud yet
authoritative tone. “And let’s give each other fifteen minutes.”
“Sounds like a plan”, smiled
Bubbles and they resigned to her study desk. Buttons continued to sit on the
floor in one of the corners. They both gazed up at the ceiling for some time.
Then at each other. And slowly let the words make their entry to their mind. It
took one hour, but in the end they felt satisfied.
“Okay, here are my first four
line”, said Bubbles
Our dear mother,
You are tender like a feather.
Your love is wide as river
And forever you are our pillar.
“Not bad,” said Buttons. “And you
managed to rhyme. Though I am not sure if ‘tender like a feather’ makes sense.
Anyways… here goes mine”, he quickly changed the subject when he saw noticed
that Bubbles is not happy with that line.
Dear-Dear Mother,
Your energy levels never wither
And we would never rather
Wish for another mother!
“Those last two lines are just perfect.
I think we could make these two poems into one… Give me the paper”, Bubbles
said. And she read one of the perfect poems they have ever heard
Dear-Dear Mother,
Your love is wide as river
And forever you are our pillar.
Your energy levels never wither.
And we would never rather;
Wish for another mother!
“Yay! This is so-so perfect. We
are better as team, I think”, Buttons chimed, and they quickly copied it into a
fresh sheet of paper and filled it with lots of doodles and colours. It was
late evening already and their mother had already called them a dozen times. They
rushed to their mother and presented their most precious creation and waited
for their mother’s reaction. She was puzzled to see the infinity greeting card
going in circles and was awestruck with the sheer beauty of it. She was elated
when they carefully opened the rolled paper which was tied with a red satin ribbon
and read the poem. She hugged them while she was speechless. This was her first
Mother’s Day gift and she knew she will cherish it forever.
She rushed to their father and
showed him the gift. He appreciated Bubbles and Buttons and joked that this
time they could get away from the punishment for lying that they were sleeping in
their rooms.
“Amma and appa, what did you gift
to grannies?” Bubbles asked.
“Gift granny? Why baby?” asked appa
with a confused look.
“Its Mother’s Day and you didn’t gift
anything to granny? Amma did you?”, Buttons enquired. She shook her heads.
“You did not? Really!!!” Buttons
asked sounding rather disappointed.
“But we shared their photos as
our WhatsApp status. Amma also did. Didn’t you?” said appa.
“Oh, come on appa! You know that
our grannies don’t even use WhatsApp!!! You better make something!” said Buttons.
“Yes, we could help you. Let’s
lie to them that you are going to clean our room or something and we could work
on this. Don’t worry. We still have time!” said Bubbles.
Their parents looked at each
other with a smile.
To be continued…
