LIFE AS IT IS

No, Trinky is not the name of a person or a pet - Trinky is my 10-month-old daughter's most favorite toy. Trinky is white and pink, she is made of cloth and cotton. She is adorable and she accompanies my daughter everywhere. Trinky is Wareesha's favorite toy. Perhaps, I should now call Trinky a rag of a toy because my daughter's chewing and chomping have done some permanent damages to her hands and legs. But Trinky is still my daughter's favorite companion. There is a funny story behind how we got Trinky: No, we did not buy Trinky. It happened last January when my aunt was visiting us from New York. Among a bunch of gifts that she got for Wareesha, there was a sleeper with very cute cow prints on it. The sleeper came with a soft toy, which looked like a cow. The sleeper was too small for my daughter so I returned it to my aunt. But I liked the soft toy cow so much that I asked her if I could keep it. My aunt agreed readily. That little soft toy cow was Trinky. We...

As I saw dozens of photos on Facebook of my friends eating out with their  mothers , I wondered if  Mother ’s  Day  is more about gift-giving and dining-out than actually recognizing what a  mother  does  for  her child. In the Unites States,  Mother ’s  Day  is one of the most commercially successful celebrations -- cakes, flowers, greeting cards and expensive gifts, such as jewelry worth billions of dollars are spent around this occasion.  Anna Jarvis, the West Virginian woman who founded  Mother ’s  Day  in the U.S.A., fought against the  commercialization  of this  day  until her death. She spent her money and time, speaking and working against what businesses have turned  Mother ’s  Day  into. In a survey carried out by the National Retail Federation (NRF) before this year’s  Mother ’s  Day , it was found that the Americans were expected to spend some $20.7...