Cheeku,
Today is Fathers’ day. Well, that’s the way everyone seems to celebrate it these days. I have always believed that everyday is Fathers’ day because if one is blessed with kids like Tubby and you, and now Tintin, Gauravs, Abhishek, Deepesh, Soumya, Roshni, Karishma, Tina, Priyanka and all the other wonderful kids around, why would I have only one Fathers’ Day?!
You wrap everyone around in that amazing warmth only you can radiate even as you continue on your travel through eons of years, through endless galaxies spreading joy far and wide.
I remember another journey, the one from Jaipur to Delhi. You were driving the Qualis and I was your navigator. That day, the first time, I heard the audio tape of the movie “Saathiya.” I had never heard it before. As the lovely songs, quite refreshing in lyrics and tune, started playing I asked you how you had picked up a Hindi tape. You were so much the English type! And you laughed out loud and said, “You know Dad, I thought you would like Hindi music better!”
Just yesterday the memories of that other journey came back to me so vividly when “Sathiya” songs began playing on mom’s new music system. And then came the two I had liked so much the time I heard them playing in the Qualis with you driving: O humdum suniyo re…O humdum raat ko khidki se chori chori nange paon chaand ayega, O humdum suniyo re…in that moment I could see your fingers playing the rhythm on the steering wheel, those long fingers of yours. And then the second one, so beautiful and so poignant….
Doston se jhoothi moothi dusron ka naam leke teri meri baaten karna, yaran raat se din karma/Lambi judai teri bada mushkil hai aahon se dil bharna, yaran raat se din karna/Kab yeh puri hogi, dur yeh duri hogi/Roj safar karna, yaran raat se din karna…
This morning, Gaurav forwarded the message his mother had sent to him:
“Memories are so confusing, and sometimes so disheartening.…You laugh when you think of the times you had cried with your dear friends and you cry when you remember the times you had laughed together….”
We laugh and we cry, we celebrate each moment in the knowledge that you are with us, as always, in everything we do.
Thank you for making every day Fathers’ Day for me, Cheeku….
Dad