Father's Day .....etc.

Finally the day ear-marked for fathers all over the world, is over. The excitement so visible from weeks ago, screaming out from banners outside greeting card shops, billboards, hoardings at strategic locations, advertisements on television, FM channels, newspapers, magazines................daring you to miss it, has died down.
I wondered what my father's reaction would be, had he been alive today, and I'd wished him Happy Father's Day with all the outpourings of a daughter's heart in a delicately designed greetings card and a box of his favourite assorted biscuits.
His typical reaction would have been,
"Father's Day?Eshob abar ki biliti dhong?Kintu biscuit gulo ene khoob bhalo korechish, Ma."
To my Baba(that's what I'd call him), celebration of such days were no more than a westernized fad.The biscuits, rather than the occasion they were meant for, would make him glad.
To me, every day I thank my dad for what he has been to me, is Father's Day.And I think, that's what my father would have expected me to believe.
It's not as if I am against giving dads their due. Hardly so. In fact, I think it's wonderful to have a special day in a year for dads alone. For their role in their children's lives cannot be underestimated.
My son, a worthy member of generation y,had been wracking his brains trying to think of surprises to give his dad on this day. Finally,his idea of the best way to celebrate? Mail a couple of suitable e-cards to Papa, give him a B-I-G hug as soon as he wakes up, order in some delicious food ,play cricket with him and watch a good movie with him over popcorns and coke.
And what do you think is his Papa's reaction? Pleased as a pumpkin to be showered with so much love.No matter if the restaurants, coke companies and card companies end up raking moolah out of it.
Dad seems to smile down at me, from his photograph, eyes twinkling. I smile back, thanking him once again for the countless lessons of life he's taught me.

In my heart, I also pray for the thousands of fathers spending this day alone, in old-age homes, away from the children they've nurtured and provided for all their lives, now forced to live a life devoid of the love and care of their own children.
Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers of the world!

Yours Randomly,

"..."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gratitude Unplugged

Strapped for time, bits and pieces of left over tasks lining up the to-do list, is when the feeling of happy fulfillment energizes me most. While peace of mind and a stress-free life are treasured above all - I love that dose of adrenaline rush too that comes from random variety in life - or, as you might want to call it, tackling the 'curve balls' life throws at you. Isn't nature all about variety too? Plants growing in wild abandon at their very own pace, creatures of every possible kind living in their spaces, the many moods of Nature beautifying the earth in their own time...  I like to think about my life as something similar - disparate elements and events co-existing in perfect and imperfect harmony as life simply goes on, like a little girl out on an adventure, Wonder in her eyes and Courage on her sleeve, egging her on. 'Stepping out of the comfort zone' was hardly a choice as I saw it - it was a more of a compulsion that etched its lessons into my da
Read more

Gurus in my Universe

Time has whooshed past like a giant whirlwind taking me with it on a roller-coaster ride, experiences of myriad colours, emotions, sizes swallowed up my little world, leaving me a tad dazed. Now months later I've somehow found a foothold for some moments,or so it seems, and I make a dash for the keyboard, the pen's rich cousin. During the time of my last post I was teaching little ones...this year I'm back to teaching young adolescents, Middle School. The morning rush remains the same. The only change being that the little kid at home now gets tagged along with me to my school. The school bus is larger, the attendance list longer, and as you would expect,the minutes spent on admonishing and monitoring have increased. The classroom dynamics have changed. Instead of the unself-conscious hugs and "Good Morning Ma'am' tugs at the dupatta,the morning greetings are now more like a friendly exchange of news and information to begin the day. These pre-teens love ev
Read more

Darwin Redefined

Darwin's famed term ,the Survival of the Fittest, coined to explain the evolution of man , is now more relevant on a socio-psychological plane. Gone are the days of hunting down one's prey,long gone indeed. We live in a day when head-hunters abound! The term ,Survival of the Fittest, today, would mean survival of someone who has all it takes to survive in this big,bad world of the meanest of the mean, someone who does not succumb to the pressures of the man-eat-man world , someone who is unnerved by the most demeaning acts, can hold his own come what may, if need be, stooping to the lowest levels of morality. Try looking around for those who qualify as the 'fittest' in this mean world.......do I see you equal the term to 'most successful'? Guess that's what it is, then. And ,would you like to be successful? 'Who wouldn't?', you smirk, a silly question to ask. We all would, given the opportunity and fortune, love to be on that Time 100 list of mo
Read more