Chillies and clay moulds

Dear Mom,

Wishing you a very happy mother's day! Thanks for being my mother and moulding me into the person that I am today.

That day is so clear. I was six or seven years old. I had been to the market along with you. We purchased many vegetables including my favourite carrot. You held two bags in your hands. I was holding a small cotton bag in my hands. It contained 250 gms of my favourite carrots. Dangling the bag in my hands we were on our way to home. That was when you recollected that we had forgotten to buy green chillies.

Again we went into the market to buy green chillies. The vegetable vendor weighed hundred grams of green chillies. You asked me to take the chillies into my bag. I reluctantly stretched my arms out with the bag open in my hands. The vendor poured the chillies from the scales into my bag. While you were paying him I picked up few more chillies on the sly and was about to put them into my bag.

That was when you held my hand tightly. You asked me to keep back the chillies on the heap from where I had picked it. I felt highly insulted. You did not speak to me on the way back to home. Neither did I. Even at that age I was fuming. Adults do not realize it but even children feel the insult.

Once we reached home you told me that what I had done was wrong. It was incorrect to pick up few chillies when the vendor was busy taking the money. You told me that honesty was the greatest virtue. You told me that though you had forgiven me on that occasion,  I will not be spared if I repeated the mistake.

On another occasion I had been to play with my friend Amod. He had magic clay. I always wanted to have a set of magic clay for me. But you did not buy one for me. Amod and I played for a long time. We prepared various animals from the clay using the moulds which came along with the set. I indeed enjoyed making those animals. The clay was so colourful. I still remember I had moulded a deer and a lion.

I told Amod how I enjoyed making the objects out of the clay. My friend graciously shared some clay and moulds with me. Happily I came home along with those prized possessions of mine. I displayed them to you.

To my utter dismay you asked me to return the same. “But I did not steal them. Amod offered it to me.” I tried to plead my case though quite unsuccessfully. “I believe your words my child. But still it is wrong to accept articles belonging to others.” You said and asked me to return the clay and the moulds to Amod. I went to his house crying and returned those objects.

These incidents are etched in my memory forever. Even after so many years they are so clear and vivid. At those points of time I had felt insulted, humiliated and sad. But those were the lessons of value education which you had inculcated in me. Indeed mother is the first teacher of a child. It is her teachings which go a long way in shaping the personality of the child. Thank you for inculcating these values in me. 

Thank you once again and thank you for all that you have given to me

#YoursHonestly 

“I am writing a letter about how a mother teaches honesty to her child with the Max Life Insurance i-genius #YoursHonestly activity in association with BlogAdda.”