She kept knocking on the doors in search of her mother.”Mother, it’s me, your daughter..I know you would be here” She kept running from door to door, only to find strangers, someone like her mother, who patted her head, held her hands and consoled her. Some women hugged her, some gave her food, some water, some even made her hair, some gave her new clothes, some asked about her favourite things, the others about her childhood. Inconsolable, she wept even more as she walked out of these strangers’ house, she was reminded of her mother when those strangers treated her with love and care. Walking across a narrow lane between houses she thought “Even my mother would have given me all I asked for and all that I didn’t, she had to just look me in the eye and she would know what I wanted. Oh! I miss her so much, why did she leave me?” By this time the word had spread about this girl in search of her mother. Touched by the story, women stepped out from their homes and stood out, some sat on the entrance of their homes, the others walked in the veranda putting their little ones to sleep. As she cautiously walked across pausing for a while in front of each house, she was greeted with a warm smile by the women who were heartened and anxious to see the girl. The tired girl reached the last block of unscanned homes, she looked through her watery eyes one by one, paused and stared at all the women who were at their doorstep. She rubbed her eyes and gave them a look again, but in despair. She reached the last home in the block only to find it closed and dark from inside. By now the tired girl didn’t bother to knock and thought to herself, “My mother can’t be in there, if she was in, she would have opened that door and ran out and hugged me and kissed me on my head”. The tired girl walked back the deserted lanes and never looked back. She recalled all those lovely moments she had with all those women who were strangers to her but gave her so much love that now overshadowed the search for her mother, atleast for now. And as she walked away, the home that she gave a miss lit up from inside, and if she were there she could hear a lady cry. It was her mother crying just like her in despair. She wiped off her tears and thought “I would have hugged and kissed my loving daughter only if she had knocked on my door”. And the little girl walked thinking “Now with so much love around me, do I really need a mother