A father is a son’s hero and daughter’s role model

I saw a middle-aged man in the metro the other evening. He wore a pale shirt and a trouser along with a pair of sandals. His feet were muddied, probably because he had walked his way to the metro station.

As I moved towards him, I glanced at the thin transparent polythene packet he was carrying in his hand, noticing it was filled with two packets of lozenges. A glimpse of that took me back in time. It reminded me of my father.

As a kid, I used to ask my father to bring something to eat on his way back home from office. And there wasn’t a day when he returned empty-handed. I liked fried vermicelli and called it a snake for its shape. He used to get off the bus and walk home just to make sure there was ‘saanp’ in his pocket when he reached home.

I was looking at the bag and then at the man and visualised his children being so happy when their father presented them with the lozenges. For them it is no less than a diamond, and for the father, the happy faces of his children is his ultimate reward. My throat choked as I was filled with emotions that I couldn’t let out.

Time has changed, but love hasn’t. The love of a father for his child only grows with time. It deepens with age and never fades.

A father may not say to his child that he loves her. He may be strict, angry, criticising, but deep inside he has only love and affection. He is soft to the core. The bond that a child shares with his father is one of the most wonderful relationships in the world.