The Complete Man

So now that I am all grown up, independent and mature (cough cough), I don’t go to my folks with every teeny tiny problem, which is why I did not tell them about being sick in the first place. But, but, but, my dad has this very strong antenna when it comes to me. Somehow he figured out that I wasn’t keeping well/feeling well, and decided to come to Mumbai for the weekend on the pretext of some work. But I like to believe it was because he knew there was something wrong with me, and the spoilt only kid that I am, I could do with some pampering.

Now, for someone as workaholic as my dad, it’s a wonder that he has managed to be such a caring husband/father. I have always seen him give everything to his work, start from scratch and make it big on his own terms and I am very proud of him for that. But what amazes me even more is the way he has managed his relationships with friends/colleagues/ex-colleagues/family, the way he has managed his personal interests (whole lot of them) and most of all, the way he has made time for me over the years. He wasn’t one of those overbearing parents who would sit at home and make me study for ages or get hyper during exams and see me off right till the exam hall or call me multiple times if I was away on trips with friends. Right from childhood, he trusted me to do the right thing (eventually), take responsibility and not let him down. And he made sure that he never let ME down. So whenever I needed him and told him so, he was there. And whenever I needed him, but never said so, he was STILL there.

Like this weekend. Not only was he around to cheer me up, we did all the father-daughter stuff that made us happy over the years: took a long walk by the sea-face, ate till we felt like throwing up, fought over the remote and then peacefully settled down to curse Manchester United as they got lucky against Liverpool and then quickly moved to India vs England. More importantly, he contributed generously to the Nefertiti smartphone relief fund (AND got my usually stingy mom and grandmom to contribute to it as well), so now I am all set to go up the phone ladder, if such a ladder exists. But of course the usual arguments continued, as he rebuked me over my ‘frivolous’ expenses, took away ALL my money and put it in some god-awful fund after discussing MY finances with an equally brain-dead colleague of mine and then asked me why on earth I didn’t have a boyfriend!

Because, my dear dad, you set a very high benchmark when it comes to the complete man…