Father's Day

Today is the third week of June, and it is being celebrated as the Father’s Day. In the morning as I was going through ‘The Hindu’, I happened to see two articles about the love of fathers. It was only then I remembered that it was a day for fathers. My daughter wished my husband a happy Father’s Day and turned to me and asked, “Did you wish ‘your father’????????

“Ah, no”, I replied casually.

I did not wish my Dad as it was not prevalent in our times and I have never wished him till date. Why should I wish him????? Was I ever close to him?????? I thought about my father for sometime.

My Dad is a self- made man. He has no great lineage to claim of. He went abroad at a very young age and it was from there he made his fortune. He studied abroad for a while before he started working.

He was a man of good looks. He was handsome and used to look like one of the film stars of the yesteryear s. Thanks to his good looks, he never had a dearth for women. He loved good food and strongly believed in the principle, “variety is the spice of life.” Whatever be his vices, we never lacked in anything. He gave us(children) all that we wanted. At some point of time, we were sent to India. It was from then on we started drifting away from him.

When he came back to India to settle down, I had great difficulty in adjusting with him. I was closer to my mum and so were my brother and sister. My Dad used to get irritated with us. He was very particular about our studies. He spent lakhs of rupees on our education. He used to strut around saying that his children were highly qualified. (He had no idea that people in Kerala were highly educated!!!!!)

He was an unsuccessful businessman. He lost most of his money in unwise business. He used to believe every Tom, Dick and Harry. It took sometime for him to realize that he was bankrupt. Now, the once millionaire is in his ripe old age is living at the mercy of his children.

Though I am not very close to my Dad, I quite often think that it was just because of him that I could enjoy the entire good thing in life. At the time when not much people knew about Chanel or Christian Dior or Elizabeth Arden, we had those beauty products and perfumes. He always believed in quality. When I passed my Class IX, my Dad presented me with a Longines watch. I never knew the value of the watch. Though my Dad told me it was an expensive watch and it was made of 18K gold, I never believed him. I only knew about Rolex, Omega, Citizen and Seiko but not a Longines. I behaved like a step mother and treated the watch badly. I took care of my Seiko watch but never did I care about this Longines. It was only a decade ago that I knew about the cost of Longines. It was then I realized that what Dad had said was true.

It is only because of my Dad that I’m enjoying all good things in life. Though I like him at heart, it is very difficult for me to show him my love and concern. At times I feel that I should come out of this mental block, but some how it doesn’t work for me. I am not sure how long he may live. I hope I can be my natural self with Dad. Though Father's Day is a creation of card companies, I think it is a good idea. At least once in a way we can think about our fathers fondly.