Dad

We observed the nineteenth death anniversary ceremony of my dad last week. It has been a long time since he left all of a sudden with no inkling of bad health. He left abruptly with the speed with which one vacates the seat in a local bus on reaching the destination.


I always wonder whether it would be possible to meet him once for an hour and what I would pack into that hour while sharing my life experience in the nineteen years which have flown by.

I will not tell him any of the jolts and shocks we suffered during this period. it would only be the positive / happy tidings in the family and life in society in general.

Where would I start ? Will I start with my life partner Geetha whom I took in couple of months after he left or with our kids whom he had never seen ? Yes, that would be a good point to start as he had a way with kids and youngsters. He always used to carry a roll of Poppins on him and would even offer it to relatives who are in college.

Our daughters would occupy the centre stage of discussion.Though my mom felt that he did not show any special qualities of dealing with infants / kids when I and my sister were toddlers, we feel that dad made up in course of time especially if the kid has reached a talking stage.

We will definitely show him some work of arts done by Geetha and kids.

I am sure he would be proud of the fact that we had spent time at various cities in India as part of my posting and we have become true "Indians".

I am sure he would like to hear about our travel to Golden Temple, Taj Mahal, Nainital etc for he had never stepped beyond a lone trip to Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Otherwise he was a Chennai Trissoor( Kerala ) shuttler

We take our kids regularly to an orphanage for mentally challenged girls. One can learn much more on kindness as well as heartlessness of our society on such visits than what we can learn in a life time through books and media. Dad would be happy of the fact that we are making our kids not only look up at aspirational personalities but also commmiserate with those who are at a disadvantage for no fault of theirs. To have a kind view of those who are underprivileged was important for dad. We are in agreement with him.

Dad was an ardent reader and had a lot interest in whole variety of events. The media boom would have pleased him on one aspect- he was a lover of sports and we would tell him that he can spend days together watching football games of good quality and volleyball matches on TV.

Nineteen years is a long period and I am sure he would find a lot of changes in me as person. I only hope that he would feel that most of the changes are for better.

Dad always used to discuss titbits of information of world affairs which we used relish when we were kids. He would find that I am no different but my kids are not too happy with me on this matter !

I do not know how he would view some of the articles of physical comfort in our house. He was cynical on such matters but I presume he would be circumspect and and would appreciate rather than criticise.

I know that meeting somebody who is no more can happen only in dreams. And this is my dream.