“I know you are going to make it”, said my father while I
was going to enter the centre for my M.A. entrance
examination. I had not been able to study anything at all. I barely got one day
amidst my university exams and other high priority course entrances to prepare
for this one. Papa wants me to get through this however. When I said “Papa, I
don’t think you will have to wait too long, three hours is too much. I hardly
know anything”. My Papa induced me with his faith. It somehow gave me a
supernatural power; it made me believe in myself. My papa is my superhero
indeed.
“It’s a funny thing
about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting
little
blister you could ever imagine, they
still think that he or she is wonderful”. - Roald
Dahl
All this while that i have been taking entrance exams i have
seen one common thing- even after graduation we remain children, pampered
little children of our parents. We are their big bag of dreams. All their hopes
and aspirations lie in our life. They hardly live once we are born. They live,
but not their life, they live for us. I have seen waving hands, broad smiles,
hopeful faces standing in the cruel Delhi heat, waiting for three yours at a
stretch while the ‘child’ is inside the building taking an exam.
What do i say about parents? They are the best. They are
better than anyone else. Can one ever count the number of lovely, selfless
things they do for us? And what do we do? We even forget sometimes that as we
are growing up, they too are, we are heading to become young adults while they
are growing old. They are growing senile and weak. They need us. But that is
what makes them annoying. Right youngsters? They are not cool, they freak out
too much, they are insecure, they think differently and most of all why do they
act so needy all the time? Well, the answer is they need us. They need
to smile in the days that they are old and weak. And that is our divine
responsibility. The father needs his daughter to find him his glasses that he
keeps in his pocket and forgets, the mother needs her to help her with her sari when her back has serious aching
problems, the father needs the son to lend him a hand with all the mental load
he had been bearing for the family all these years, the mother needs him to
stand there and support her like she has fought for him with the whole world,
like she has loved him more than anyone else ever. But we forget them. They
become a burden, an annoyance. We get so irritated at times that we just want to
run away, become independent and prove them “see we don’t need your money, your
house”. But do you know who will be the happiest person on earth the day you
become so self-sufficient that you earn your own money and build your own
house? Your father and your mother. That’s a fact and no one can change it.
“At first the
infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms; Last scene of all … … … That
ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere
oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything”.
Shakespeare’s description of the seven ages as it says, the
infant is puking and crying and as it grows old it is once again like the
puking, toothless, inexpressive child. When we were at the first stage our
parents loved us, cared for us, nurtured us. But when they grow old, we often
forget to look after them. While it is the best chance for all of us to
actually look after them, as they are little children.
I am not generalizing anything neither am i being
judgemental. But i am stating facts. This is basic human nature. When we start
realizing we belong to two ideological sects, when our education starts to take
over what our parents have been teaching us, we start drifting apart. However,
have you ever wondered, each and every parent ensures that they get their
children are better educated than themselves. And what it turns out to
be? That is a funny story. We turn that ‘education’ against them.
We can’t change them. But that does not mean we shall not
stay. They need us.
Go call them, go hug them. They need to hear your voice, see
you smile, get your warmth. Their happiness lies in the most unmaterialistic
things you can offer. And that is the beauty of this relationship.
My parents hardly understand and support my dreams. That
disheartens me. But I can also see parallely, my mom making me coffee when I
wake up late in the night working on articles and stories, and my father always
throwing new words in our conversations, so that i can develop my vocabulary.
Yes, that is how parents are. They are your first superhero and they remain so
all their life, in the meantime though we often forget that and start finding ‘better’
heroes, only to never find any eventually.
“Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide
forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body”. -Elizabeth
Stone
Ojaswini
Totally understand that.. i was forced to get into engineering and it was not my cup of tea at all, i spend most of the time on hockey grounds or the track and field ... because thats all i was good at .. yet parents would not understand .. have to get into enginerring college.. THANK GOD i did not pass my entrance exam..
ReplyDeletebut I guess thats how it is ..and what you say is right parents always want the best for us and when we become parents we will probably understand better
Bikram