AAKHRI BAAR JAB MERI MAA NE MERAA JANAM DIN MANAYAA

I have all the reasons to know that I was my mothers favourite son. And I also know that she prayed for me more than she prayed for her other two sons. She often told me that she wanted me to be born as her daughter - Ali Peter John

She was so concerned about me that she wanted me to get married to an 'English girl' when I was eighteen.

She used to feel thrilled when she used to see me writing or reading and she used to tell her friends that I would be a big man like my father one day.

She made it a point to celebrate all my birthdays even if she didn't have enough money. It was to be my 14th birthday on June 29 1964. I saw my mother making hectic preparations for the big day.

She had bought a new shirt for me which cost 10 rupees and Walk well shoes for rupees 12 .

She had invited the village irrespective of class , creed and community and had hired a Christian band for the occasion.

Two days before my birthday, she visited the market and the slaughter house and bought all that she wanted to serve her guests.

I was very excited and had woken up at 4'o clock in the morning. I opened the back door of our hut without being aware that the door did not have a latch and my mother's grinding stone was used to keep the door shut and the grinding stone fell on my foot.

I didn't tell my mother about what had happened and went to school to attend the mass(a Christian ritual ) as my birthday coincided with the birthday of Fr Peter Pereira , the founder of my school. My excitement kept growing and so was the pain in my foot.

I reached home and my mother asked me to invite my neighbors who were boycotted by the area in which we lived.

I knocked at their door and was received by a black dog who kept barking at me but only felt satisfied when he dug six of his shrappest teeth into my left foot and that was a signal for my mother to attack the dog who was caller Tiger and that was the end of Tiger.

My mother called some ladies home who got blood from my wound sucked by a large lizard and applied some kind of an ointment which was prepared out of some green leaves and when the bleeding stopped , my mother wrapped a huge bandage around my damaged foot and continued with her cooking.

I used the time between three and five to do my homework. At five , there was a rumor that the river next to my house was overflowing not with water, but by a sudden spurt of fish of all kinds .

The people of the village rushed to the river to see the miracle and so did i . My friends were using every method to catch as much fish as possible.

One of my friends Thomas discovered a new way and that was by stoning the fish in the river .

I was standing at a distance when I felt a strong thud on my head and when I touch my head, i saw blood flowing all over my body. I was almost unconscious till my friends took me to Dr. Sarkar who was the only doctor in the village .

He made me suck a few spoons of honey and rubbed some ointment on my head. My mother was not aware of what had happen to her dear son for quite sometime and when she realized what had happened, she caught hold of Thomas the boy who had hit my head with that stone and she caught him and smashed his fingers with a small grinding stone and then came back home to continue the celebrations .

The band had started playing Hindi and Konani songs(my mother tongue) and liquor was being served freely and both men and women took to dancing all kinds of local dances and were soon joined by children too.

Dinner was served on banana leaves and there was so much food that we could eat breakfast , lunch and dinner for the next three days . It was a birthday that no one could forget for a longtime .

And I continued with my studies as my principal had told me that no student who failed even in one subject would not be allowed appear for the SSC EXAM. And I knew that I would fail in Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry even if God wrote my papers , I would still fail. I had only one way of getting through and that was by praying .

As expected, I failed in all the three math papers. My principal asked me to call my mother to give him a guarantee that I would pass in all the seven subjects I would appear for in my SSC exam .

I told the principal that my mother could not come to meet him . He asked me why and I told him that my mother would now not be able to attend any meetings in this world. The strict principal asked me not to joke in such serious circumstances.

I told him that my mother had died in December . He asked me why I couldn't inform him and even at mt young age, I asked him what he or anyone could do if I told them about my mother's death.

He had no answer and just askex me to give him in writing that I would clear my SSC EXAM with seven subjects.

I was the only student who could pass out with a first class without taking scoring subjects like Maths, Physics and Chemistry.

My villagers were so happy with me and my results that they took me around the village on horseback and with the same band that my mother had hired for my birthday .

In that moment of glory , I looked only for one person and that was my mother and she was not there.

My 14th birthday was the last and best birthday celebrations I had all because of my mother .

The very next birthday, I and my younger brother had no food to eat and kept looking for ways to find food .

That was the day I realized rhe importance of having a mother and since then I have been remembering and worshipping my mother and all mothers.

And since the last 55 years I have been looking for my mother even though I know that I will never find another mother like my mother Mary.

MAA SIRF BHAGWAN KA ROOP HI NAHI HAI. MAA SAAKSHAT BAHGWAN HI HAI. ISMEIN KOI SHAQ HO SAKTA HAI ?