Mother's Day. Ha! Every day is 'mother's day', every day is father's day, every day is child's day, every day is everyone's day! What stuff and nonsense!
But...
I'd ignore it all if I hadn't already committed to hosting a mother's day tea. Lined up in the kitchen are ingredients ready for me to transform into chickpea salad, guava fruit salad, hunter beef sandwiches, and pineapple upside down cake. The menu will further include pani-puri puffs and dehi baray.
Late
in life I've come to appreciate these commercialized excuses for
for boosting consumerism as opportunities to affirm certain useful and
universal values. In a world which has mostly demeaned the importance of mothering, why not stop and take a moment to celebrate motherhood? Its the ultimate arena of transformation. Constant presence, unconditional love, profound mirroring, perpetual challenge and sheer joyous slog!
My daughter gave me permission to share this poem I wrote for her. Its a cheat's way to blog. So sue me. Chickpeas call!
Metamorphosis
A
poem for Sofia on her 16th birthday
My
child, my salty lass
My
soft-focus pearl
My
pomegranate ruby
My
oceanic emerald
Who
would have imagined
this
stained-glass butterfly
you
are becoming
slowly
unfolding from pupa-gestation
limbs
and wings painstaking
in
the drying and setting
delicately
stretching
tentatively
testing
air,
fragrance, temperature
fluttering
but
not yet
flying
Not
true all that -
There’s
a tigress in there somewhere
ready
to roam the jungle sleekly
and
snarl and sink jaw
and
have fill of a kill
to
sate the inner animal
And
that’s not true either -
for
there’s a coltish foal
snorting
and stamping stilettos
ready
to whip-snap muscles
to sprint
and stride
pass the finish line
and shine
And that’s not true either -
for what’s that I see?
Iridescent plumage betraying
the exotic centre of your avian
being - a bird of paradise
beckoning
Every time I look upon you
I see something new
and rich
kaleidoscopic
To love you to have you to hold you
has been the dream of my mothering eye
I sit beside you in awe
and hold you in my heart
tenderly, foreverly
as I gaze upon the light and joy in your secret
and I know it is for me
to hold aloft that dream in the cave of my heart
until you see by that same light within
and reach out to it tenderly
eagerly
to claim it totally
foreverly
Who knows
how long
that might be
No matter
for I am lost
in the silken folds
of
this flowing
and
draping
and
twisting
seeking,
hoping
the
duet holds its spell
while
the creaturely strength of a hundred
shades
of being
generates
and reverberates
through
every layer
terrestrial
and celestial
as
you are born into
a true
facsimile of
You
Mama
Karachi 9th
November 2010
Glossary:
Pani puri puffs: tiny fried rounds of flattened discs of dough that puff up into crisp spheres into which one then makes a hole on one side and fills with boiled chickpeas and a variety of watery tamarind based chutneys (sweet or chillified). Essentially a Gujurati snack, these delicate bouchees are fun to eat and moreish.
Dehi baray: fried gram flour dumplings nestled in a delicately seasoned yoghurt sauce, served with tamarind chutney, coriander chutney and optional crunchy toppings.
No comments:
Post a Comment