Mere Pitaji is too good

.....why I think my dad is greatest.....


Yesterday radio was all gang-ho about fathers, some crappy date like father's day or something. All the radio frequencies had that stupid callup shows running. Each kid had a reason to brand his/her dad as greatest, or among the greats, right in that league. It made me ponder. I pondered with Dr. Dorian (Scrubs fame) expression on my face. I came up with following reasons:

1) When most kids were promised bicycles for performing well in exams. My dad promised me a "Riksha" for not performing.

2) These days I'm trying to establish a business setup, it's not easy. If I had a dependent wife and two kids and had I came to new town(Delhi) with Rs. 5000, I guess it wouldn't have made things easier. I guess they were not for him either, I never got to know.

3) About 13 years ago, he was informed by a friend's dad about photogrpahs of some ladies in compromising position were supplied to his son by me. I kept waiting for an uncomfortable speech from him but he comfortably forgot the incident.

4) He is even more forgetful than me. I keep losing keys, he keep losing cars.

5) He brought me a bottle of Black Label from his eurpoe trip, while 'officially' I havent still tasted liqour.

While a lot of kids adore their fathers for doing this or doing that, I simply love him for just not doing anything and let me find my own life (As I'm reading last line again, it is somehow looking sarcastic. I must clear however there is absolutely no sarcasm intended). I think he had given me just one career advice so far, that was when I had screwed up my 12th exams, to join some course at safdarjung airport for being a pilot. I think he was just kidding or perhaps indicating to me how wierd I am allowed to get. I chose a more conventional route, but that was my choice.

I think I got my two most defining traits of my personality from him. One obviously is forgetfullness and other is wit. I learned from him that there is only one right perspective to look at this world and life in general and that is the witty perspective.<< ..... at this point I broke my Dr. Dorian thinking posture and asked myself. Really? Am I really witty? Or so I would like to think of myself? Then I again went in to Dr. Dorian thinking posture, this time with my face on other side. Following incident popped in my head......>> In my car..... bombs was driving. It was fourth day of some test match in which India had scored some 600 odd runs in first inning and then australia had scored some another 700 in reply. We were having discussion about the match, Bomb Vardhan in his usual analytic and optimistic approach explained to me that India can still win this match. It just takes one good over. Proabability to hai. While I was literally furious on how can he think like that, he kept saying Proabability to hai. Since we were stuck in traffic and car's A/C was not working, it became more irritating and discussion just continued. Then he went on explaining how infact australia can also win. Proabability to hai!!. He could see I was running out of arguments for a draw, to change the topic he said, "this seat belt rule should be relaxed in such thick traffic. Come on, what is going to happen? Will the driver bang his head on steering for a very painful death?" I thought over his rather insightful observation and replied "Proabability to hai" . :) <<.......Oh cummon that was witty, perhaps not as good as when hathi once asked my dad "Aap kaun?" and he replied "Rishte main to hum shishir ke baap lagte hain" . But perhaps in a league close by, So get back to your original thinking posture....... >>


One thing that I haven't inherited from him is his altruism. I think he is closest to Gandhi in present times. This might look like an overstatement, but trust me I know him for last twenty years. He really is. He really makes me wonder how can anybody dissolve boundaries between self and non-self to such an extent. To me it just looks crazy. Perhaps someday I will grow up to understand.