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Its Father's Day today...

Its quite strange that for a society like ours which thrives and survives on family values - we never had these 'days' as a part of our culture. not that it means that we dont value these relations - just that i would have loved to have more days to celebrate these lovely relations! its the same as having a birthday - its not that you dont love that person the rest of the 364 days - but that day makes him/her feel extra special!! and what's life if not a collection of these small moments of feeling 'special' to someone... so am all for all these 'days' - tho' pls i do draw a line at celebrating 'boss day'!!! :-)

Anyways - back to the topic
"My Daddy Strongest!!" - this line never failed to make me smile everytime i saw it on TV...

Its always strange for me to describe my relation with my dad... am the youngest of 3... dad was 38 when i was born... busy struggling to keep a roof over the family's head having left his family business behind and set up sthg on his own.
He was ridiculed for having me - another child when he already had a daughter and a son - since he cud ill-afford it... and yet he did... since he wanted a large family.
He could have saved a hell of a lot of money by putting all of us in hindi-medium govt schools - where most of my cousins went - but he just didnt agree - and english medium schools we got.
He was the one who brought women liberation to our household - all 3 had to do all household chores equally... my sister used to go with him to the factory... My brother today is the only guy i know who truly believes in women being complete equals to men...
He taught me discipline in daily life - which i still think is my biggest strength today!
He gave me my life's mantra - What's worth doing is worth doing well!! He told me being anything but the best in whatever i take on was just not worth it...
He brought the love of books into our household... exposing us to worlds we didnt have access to otherwise..
He brought us the love of movies - The monthly movie visits with the dosa dinner - comprise some of my best childhood memories!
He took on anyone who dared to comment on my decision to come back home after my marriage failed... Till date none of my interfering relatives have never raised that topic with me... in all these years.. and without a single doubt in my head, i know its because of his fear! :-)

I could go on and on... and yet it wud be a lie to say that am very close to my dad today! Things change, situations change, priorities change, so do people. Children grow up and become adults... while parents... well, they remain parents dont they?

Is this why its said that childhood is the best time of anyone's life? The time when we have our parents and our roles so clear...
They teach, we learn.
They tell, we hear.
They love, we love it even more.
They Give, we take...

Hmm... Wish i had a better memory... could have treasured those moments a while longer...

happy Father's Day Dad!! I love you...

Comments

aman said…
beautifully written...you've inspired me to start writing as well... :)
Ruchika said…
Thanks a lot aman!! do let me know when u start... would love to read whats on your mind! :-)
deepu said…
Awesome.. I wish i could write atleast 2 lines like that in my blog.. Who says pictures speak a thousand words ..
Akshay Hiremath said…
Hmmm, another very well written piece Ms Gupta. It is inspirational whenever I see what a close, caring, supportive family unit you all seem to be.

I like the bit when you say you wish you had a better memory so you could treasure those special moments with your Dad better. Very true, but I would like to add that I think people like you and me are very lucky to have our parents here with us, for us, well into our mid 30s.

We don't just need better memories for things that happened in the past - I think we need to realise how fortunate we are (people tend to take parents for granted - we can go through a lifetime without finding anyone who genuinely and unconditionally cares for us as much as they do), and I feel we should all spend more quality time now and create those special memories that will last a lifetime. I don't do this myself as much as I should with my parents, but am working on it. :-)

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