Reminiscences of you...

As I sit by the window,

Staring at the rain drops touching ground

I introspect and wonder,

Almost three decades that I have

Known you my dear father

No man has ever charmed me

The way you have…

It is said the main reason

Why a daughter needs a father

Is to show her that

Not all the men are like

The ones who hurt

Your courage, grace and wit

Has always been beyond praise!

Few old reminiscences that your pampered little princess shall recollect and always cherish…

When I was a little girl and you picked me up on getting back from work, swung me high in the air, my hands always reached out to your shirt pocket which had your wallet and then to your specs. Thus, leaving you in complete annoyance since these were two of your most treasured ‘objects’.

The most ghastly and scary event was my head injury at Bangalore, while you sprinted helplessly on the roads of an unknown city, with your arms smeared in blood and forehead with anxiety.

Then there was the ‘rickety rick’ which carried me to school, along with five other kids. How I hated being squeezed into the limited space ! So, I ‘purposefully’ delayed my breakfast, so that you could drop me on the scooter, on your way to work (which was on the opposite direction to my school). Like a little puppy I hugged you while we rode together in our fluorescent green scooter (well! The analogy was drawn by friends who saw us so)

Ah! Your choice of clothes and accessories..whenever you travelled to places (which you most often did), you ensured to get all three of us (maa, nani & me) gifts. And I eagerly looked forward to receiving the same.

The English Literature lessons, specifically poems…the words are still afresh in my mind (“Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will, to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” – Ulysses, Tennyson) and many more.

I never asked for anything, since everything was offered, unasked. Never sensed the deprivation of not having something I desired, since it was fulfilled before I went on the mode of desiring. So, when we were at that shop in Delhi and you were buying my first ever mobile phone, I decided to settle down on a simple handset, while you kept insisting on the swanky ones.

Love struck, when I revealed my heart out to you, on a piece of paper, though scared, but confident of your (my) choice and then when you met him and said ‘He has all the qualities that a young man of his age should have’, you took my heart away. Somehow, I could sense the pain you were going through for letting go your little angel.

A year back, when I was bidding adieu during my ‘bidai’ and for the first time in life, I found you teary eyed, (I had missed nani’s bidai) it pained me, a LOT

These are only few, on the top of mind. While there have been instances when I have expressed my feelings, but like an iceberg, the most remains submerged, deep within.