Happily ever after

HELMI Majid doesn’t consider himself an avid reader, yet he has a home filled with books. He says never read as much as after becoming a father five years ago – never mind that it is princess stories that his daughter insists that he reads to her every single night before bed.

Helmi, 38, is now able to recite Cinderella from memory – with different character impersonations to boot – and he has promised his daughter that the mermaid costume she has been dreaming about will be hers once she learns how to swim.

Ariel from The Little Mermaid might want to be part of the world where people walk and run and stay all day in the sun, but fiveyear-old Sofea Isabella wants to be where her story books characters are.

“It is princesses and happily-ever-afters that capture Bella’s imagination at this point,” he laughs.

Helmi, who works in the oil and gas industry, started his daughter on flashcards when she was an infant. Now that reading has progressed to princesses and princes, frogs, evil stepmothers and fairy godmothers, he is happy to go along for the ride, no matter where the journey takes them.

“Bella wants me to read many of the same stories to her every day, it has come to the point where she finishes the sentences for me. Our routine each evening is story time, then she drinks her milk and goes to bed. Without reading, she does not want to sleep!” he says.