Mum's the word!

KOLKATA: Soumi Roy and Nupur Agarwal plan to celebrate Mother''s Day in their own special way. Nupur, a class XII student saved her pocket money and borrowed from her father to buy a imported perfume for her mother.
"Shhh please don''t shout, Ma might hear you. It''s a secret," she whispered when TNN dropped into her house on Saturday. Nupur confessed she hadn''t really heard of Mother''s Day before last year when advert banners flashed on her screen every time she logged on to the internet.
Soumi''s mother passed away when she was 6. The class XI student however, will remember this Mother''s Day for a long time. For with a little help from her father and brother, Soumi has collected enough money to ''adopt'' a mother this year.
"I was curious when I was told that Cini Asha wanted citizens to adopt pregnant mothers to ensure a healthy life for mother and child. I went to Pailan where I met some of these mothers and decided to adopt Diya, a 26-year-old pregnant mother whose husband works as a contract labour," Soumi said.
While, for most college and school students in Kolkata ''Mother''s Day'' was a "Western concept where people needed special days to pay respect to elders," - individuals like Soumi and different voluntary organsiations and departmental stores are determined to make this Mother''s Day special for some ''less priviledged'' mothers.
"In the last two years nearly 1,100 needy mothers have been adopted by individuals, as part of our ''adopt a mother save her child'' project.
"The list of those who helped include Sourav Ganguly''s mother. We hope this year too many needy mothers will get a helping hand," CINI assistant director A. Gine told TNN.
The Child in Need Institute also invited Saurav''s wife Dona and theatre artist Dolly Basu to interect with other mothers and ''celebrate the essence of motherhood''.
Others like the Emami Landmark bookstore have grand plans. On Sunday Landmark plans to invite a 100 children for a workshop to help them make something for their mothers.
"It''s a out-of-this-world feeling when you create something with your own hands. Most of these children cannot afford to buy anything normally, so we hope to have a good time," said Gautam Jatia of Landmark.