Mother of all Mothers’ Days

BY LP AYER

members of Club 60, seniors group of the Gurjari Association of SA, gave themselves a fabulous present for this year’s Mothers’ Day. They took themselves on the Dolphin Discovery cruise in the Port River, one of Adelaide’s favourite touristy endeavours. The outing was planned by the association’s live-wire secretary, Neelam Patel, who also organised the traditional kite-flying on Makar sankranthi earlier this year.

Some thirty seniors wrapped in warm clothing gathered at the designated spot at the Queens Wharf at Port Adelaide, with loads of food for the two-hour cruise starting close to mid-day. Having gone on this cruise once before, I found this one more exciting. For an outing of this kind to become outstanding, the weather gods need to smile on you. They put out, as part of their homage to mothers of the world, a beautiful autumn day. We enjoyed from the open top deck, pleasing calm blue waters under a cloudless blue sky.

Dolphins in their dozens darted and dived around, a welcome contrast to my last trip with another seniors group. All that we managed to see then was a grey speck far off for a fleeting moment. They decidedly dodged us. This time around, they came out in numbers, no doubt to do their bit to delight the mothers on board on their special day! The captain would call attention as soon his keen eye cited the creatures, and everyone would crisscross the floor to capture them on their cameras.

To top it all, a couple of dolphins decided to swim alongside for several minutes, just a meter away from the front bow, as if they were tethered to the boat. Although I am not an Attenborough addict like my wife, I could guess they were a mum and bub celebrating Mothers’ Day in their own way. Iphones and ipads went on overdrive to capture the sight. It was wonderful entertainment.

Talking about entertainment, our group’s skipper Neelam had a hull full of games. As soon as the vessel moored off, she set off with some well-tried party games. One of the planned activities - a brief demo of physical exercises by seniors held under her guidance every week - had to be shelved for lack of space as the deck was too full. Neelam, a professional physio with a Masters degree, freely gives a couple of hours of her time every Saturday to conduct exercise/yoga classes for seniors to help them improve their mobility.

Half way through it was time for lunch. Along with fine weather and lots of dolphins on show, there was a lot of fine food, mostly of the Gujarati kind. Having a weakness for sweets, I was expecting plenty of dessert since that’s what Gujarati food is famous for, but that was not to be - the only downside of the cruise. But the highlight of the day came next.

Neelam took out her mobile and started reading text messages of greetings from the children/partners of all those mothers on board – a surprise segment. How she managed to get so many of them in a matter of a week, showed her enthusiasm in organising this outing. Every single message outshining the other in emotion and expression, showed the deep love and respect that motherhood commands. To confirm this – if at all confirmation is needed – the day’s paper carried a report of a survey with half the respondents saying that Mothers’ Day mattered the most with Fathers’ Day coming a poor fourth, with a mere five percent response. Where are you, gender equality warriors?

I can proudly state this outing was the mother of all mothers’ day. I am sure Pope Francis will approve of my calling it as such. Remember his displeasure when the US Army called its recent dropping of a massive bomb in Afghanistan as ‘mother of all bombs’. The mother creates life, not destroys it, he had said then. Can I expect a Papal blessing?