As anyone who knows me would know, I have a son. He is a big boy now. He was little once. He is not demonstrative, but shows a little hint of affection occasionally.
Between 1997 and 2002, we visited the US quite often, mostly spent the months of April and May there. In addition, it is in this period that mothers' day is celebrated. AT first, he could not understand how my birthday could change. He after all had a mother with a birthday in August. Then he figured that it was a day that mothers are felicitated and gifts are brought for them etc. In the US, my son would do small chores and collect quarters and he had a few dollars saved.
A few days before one mothers’ day, he made me wait outside Lechters' (one more victim of the bad times in US) and he bought me a beautiful set of knives. I was very pleased. It had set him back a good 9 dollars, almost half of what he saved. The day before mothers' day, he spied a magnetic clip with Taz (a comic character modelled on the Tasmanian devil) and I like it and bought it for three princely dollars. On our return, my kiddo sidled up to me and said, "You know that the knives cost a lot of money. Will you please buy them for yourselves and accept Taz as my gift. It is also very nice. And please return six dollars to me. I am a poor boy working hard and we will leave for India before I can earn his back. SO I said OK. And Taz still adorns my fridge after all these years. The knives and the fridge are different.
Flash forward to present day and age when my son has voting rights and is of an age when it is legal in India to marry. He visited China and was there during my birthday. In one of our Skype exchanges , he told me that he had bought me a dragon in genuine jade. I was very happy about this gesture. He came back and gave it to me. Then after a few hours he blurted out that of all the things he had go in China, this was the most expensive memento and so he wanted to keep it in his room. He gave me a dragon he had, made of some non-jade material. He then gave me a T shirt with a photo of the dragon and told me that he had ensured that it was my sixe and that it was not the cheapest one available.
I have a feeling the T Shirt may outlast the dragons.
