Saturday 6 June 2015

He : Blog # 223

He


Theirs was a broken relationship. Like any other father-son relationship, it had also started with unblemished love and care for each other. He had fond memories of his father from childhood. His was not a typical loving, showering with care sort of a father. He was treated as an equal. For that matter, his father treated everyone as equal to his age – be it children or those from the generation bygone. Neither did his father shower love and affection towards children, nor did he show visible respect towards elders.

All through childhood, he grew up struggling to understand the dynamics of the relationship they both shared. It was so unlike what his friends had with their fathers. When he entered adolescence, he enjoyed the relationship thoroughly. At an age when one yearns to be treated as a grownup, when one’s own father does that, what more could one ask for? It was during the first year in college that he learned of the growing distance between his parents. When he came to know that the reason is another woman, he couldn’t wrap his head around the situation. His parents eventually got divorced. The books he read, his friends and even his mother after a while asked him to forgive his father for what he did. His friends told him that whatever he did, that person is his father and so, forget and forgive.  He asked his friends as to why is it so very necessary that one should forgive one’s father or mother? They said because that is the nature of the relationship. How would he know for he has never experienced that very nature of the relationship!

Time passed by like milestones do on a long lonely journey. He thought to himself that may be it is time. The unpleasantness is not helping anyone. Mother used to tell him that she was in a happy place in life now and so was his father. She asked him as to why he is bearing the burden of their broken relationship.  By now, age had altered his perception of righteousness. His idea of self and being selfish had undergone a sea of change now that he had a family of his own. His wife told him to visit his father on his father’s birthday. He asked his wife to come along. She told him that it was a journey he should sail alone.

He thought he will call up his father. Even though his father wasn’t one who liked surprises, he thought this might be one that he may like. He reached his father’s new house and he noticed how similar the garden was to one he had at his childhood home. His father’s wife opened the door and welcomed him with a broad smile. She rushed to call his father.

They had not met for many seasons now. He did not know where to look or what to say.His father looked at him and said “Thank you dear son. Today, I too forgive myself”.

Arun Babu

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