A Norway for Every Mother

The caption could amuse you. I wanted to say "Norway, the best place for Sons" but then how else do i salute that supreme phenomenon called Mother and which other occasion could be better than the second Sunday of every May or thereabouts..

Well, its the same me who said sometime back why do we need an occasion to salute a mother, dad, wife, brother, sister, lover, enemy, traitor...the list is long.

Norway has been ranked as the best place for mothers by a US based organisation. The survey for 2011, which is released around early May every year,  has ranked Norway the best place in the world to be a mom, where maternal and child mortality rates are low, women's life expectancy and years in school are high, and the average maternity leave is about one year. Australia and Iceland are among the top three. Afghanistan and a few african countries form the bottom league.  US is at 31, largely because of higher maternal mortality rate - reportedly the higheset among developed countries.

India at the 73rd place doesn't do its cultural heritage any proud. Our professed respect for womanhood and therefore motherhood is somewhere lost so as to keep us way behind many progressive 'thinkers' - goes to prove scientific progress and respect for values can coexist.

I have generally considered myself blessed but somewhat less fortunate in life. If i count my blessings and delve deeper,  one of the main reasons for being eternally blessed and being not too unlucky is the presence of a great mother in my life. Every mother is great, no doubt. You need to see this one - its differently special.