To my dearest father,
Before anything else, I just wanted to say, thank you. I have been your protegee for many tasks, even if it was just holding some rope and carrying a few buckets up and down the stairs. Our journey began long before I could remember and I was just a tiny creature in your hands, snivelling and crying occasionally. Those early years have been captured in photographs, neatly organized in multiple albums, frozen in time but lost in memory.
I suppose I should start with our makeshift cricket matches in our tiny living room, using the flat handrest of the wooden chair as a bat. I was too small to even lift this knock-off bat properly, but you still amused me and bowled a medium ball for me to hit. I didn’t inherit the sporting cricket genes from mum and you. So, thank you for indulging my terrible batting. Now, commentating was a whole other story and I did pretty well when everyone got together to play carrom board or badminton.
MERRIN ABRAHAM
Merrin completed her Integrated MA in English Studies from IIT Madras. She is a storyteller, bibliomaniac and a lover of indie music who had a passion for the English language that she dedicated her childhood to reading Victorian literature. Besides drinking bitter coffee and analysing Asian media, she is trying to find a horror story worthy of the genre.
Round table pizza after the 3 hour flight from India was always the best and I believe I have never tasted anything as good as it. In retrospect, it’s probably because I could eat it with you. Same goes for donuts, shawarma, hummus and kuboos, and probably every dish I ate over the summer. Grocery shopping has never been as fun as it was with you. You would let us roam all over the mall, go through every single aisle, pick out vegetables, fruits, and pickled olives, always keeping an eye on us. Thank you for allowing us to run wild down the aisles every once in a while.
But like everything else in this world, I grew older. I grew up quicker than I imagined, prickly and short tempered, rebelling for unknown causes. Your patience was the highlight of my teen years. Thank you for silently enduring my emotional outbursts. I was busy studying when you finally returned, but those few years are memorable. You always knew if I needed something and my need would materialise before I could think about it twice. Some may say that’s pampering, but I know for a fact that it is just your love for me; you were strict when necessary and easy-going otherwise.
Looking back at our past, it has only been 30 years since we met, but it feels like I’ve made memories to last a lifetime with you. In lieu of this day, Father’s day, and every other day we live, I just wanted to say thank you and I love you.
Your loving daughter.
What would you like to tell your father this ‘Father’s day’? Drop a comment about something your father has done for you or something you would like to remember him by.
