This post is a salute to the man who means the most to me in this world.
She hopped around the little playground, filled with mirth. There was a sparkle in her eyes, just as brilliant as the warm sunrays falling on her beautiful face. A gentle breeze mischievously tugged at her black tresses, as she emptied her small bucketful of water into the sand-pit and started giving it a shape, humming softly all the while, unmindful of everyone and everything around her, as if enclosed in a bubble. The bubble finally burst with the voice of her mother calling out to her. She dropped her bucket, and ran towards her mother’s voice, drawn to it like metal to magnet. Mother swept her into her arms and Father gently kissed his little princess on the forehead. “What have you been up to, my darling?” he asked. She smiled naughtily, and whispered, “It’s a secret. I’ll tell you if you promise you won’t tell mom”. Father smiled and winked at mother, who handed the little girl to her husband and hurried in to prepare tea. He sat her down on his lap and declared dramatically, “Cross my heart and hope to die!”. Satisfied, she smiled at him, and took his finger into her little hands, leading the way, towards the sand-pit.
It was a tiny little house, complete with a stone-lined pathway leading to the entrance door. There was also some crude landscaping of stones, grass and leaves along with some shrub pieces which only a child can pass off as trees!
She hugged him tight and kissing his stubbled cheek, announced confidently, “When I grow up, one day, this is the house I am going to build for you and Mom! Promise, you won’t tell Mom. I want to surprise her!”
He looked in her deep black eyes and saw the distinct sparkle. They say, a child’s eyes are transparent windows that allow one to see right through into their hearts! He could see the genuine pride and love with which she had just confided her secret in him, in those eyes. It flooded his own heart with pride, love…..and gratitude. Gratitude that he had been blessed with a baby girl like her. He remembered the day she was born. The nurse had brought her to him with an almost apologetic expression on her face, and announced quietly that it was a girl. He had leapt with joy at this news. It confused the nurse. She wondered if he had heard wrong. She again mentioned to him that the baby was indeed only a girl, expecting to see the joyous expression on his face get replaced by disappointment. Instead, his happiness and exuberance only seemed to have increased further. He explained to the perplexed nurse, that he was indeed overjoyed to be blessed with ‘Laxmi’, and that in his household, a girl child was considered a boon and not bane.
As he smiled at the look on the nurse’s face and took the infant in his arms, her baby feet gently kicked at his forearm, and she gazed at him with those same black intense eyes. He knew then, that his love affair with his bundle of joy had just begun.....
Dear Readers, this post is a blend of fiction and reality. That little girl is actually me and my two sisters…and the father is our beloved Dad. There is no greater happiness for a child than to know that he/she was so wanted. Thanks to our Mom, we know that at a time when a male child was still the greatest desire of every prospective parent in India, and the birth of a girl child was as welcome as an earthquake, we three were truly…WANTED.
