Mother's Day festivities in Bay Area

This year's Mother's Day was exceptionally joyous and significant for me. My parents are visiting and having been away from my loved ones for over a decade, I cherish every moment spend together and nothing compares or comes close to the happiness and security of being around in a circle of love.

My daughter, my mom and me commenced the day with a Mother's Day hug and thanked the God for his kindness and benevolence for bestowing on us these days of togetherness and companionship. Truly, great joys come in small bundles.

Family togetherness and time spend with loved ones for me is above any festival or celebration. People who have moved away from their families can adequately understand the intensity of my emotion and possibly appreciate to its full the pleasure that togetherness entails.

My acquaintances comment that I look more relaxed and happier and on a personal note, the hues of flowers seem brighter, the leaves greener and the hills higher. Love is truly magical and helps one lead a fuller life.

After poetic, let me tread back to the real and besides mine, tell you something about the celebrations on Mother's Day on my side of the world.

In the last decade, increase in the south Asian populace has seen a direct rise in festivities marking the mater day weekend in the Bay Area. Besides others, one of the de rigueur festivities on the day for moms includes a live show featuring Bollywood actors or singers or both.

This year on Saturday, May 12, Asha Bhonsle, Sonu Nigam, Kunal Ganjawala and Kailash Kher regaled the moms especially the Hindi song aficionados with old and new Hindi movie songs at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. The performers are on a world tour titled The Incredibles covering fifteen cities in the US, Britain and Canada.

Besides the high decibel and highly priced musical extravaganza covering the maestros, some of the other festivities marking the special day for moms included a 5K to 10K Run or walk organized by India Literacy Project (ILP); a US based non-profit organization dedicated to the cause of literacy in India.

The brochure about the event read: "this year the race is on Mother's Day, to honor all mothers. No words are needed to describe the importance of Mothers in our lives but for ILP this day holds special value. Not only do mothers play a crucial role in instilling the importance of literacy in their child's life, they also can bring a great change in the state of their family by embracing literacy themselves. Literate mothers, especially in rural parts of India, have been a great drive for spreading the light of literacy. Education has empowered these mothers to drive their families from a life of poverty and suffering to one of prosperity and success."

For the culturally and historically inclined, Mother's Day celebrations at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco marked a relaxing day amongst rare arts and artifacts of Asia. The special events at the museum included henna application, illustrations demos, hands on arts and crafts and a storytelling dance performance.

In general, this day marked for mothers is celebrated in US with reverent remembrances via cards, gifts, flowers and brunches for a role that has been adequately described in the words: "since God could not be everywhere." I can't agree more.