Father’s Day: Celebration For All?

Today I am writing a short story which is not supposed to judge. It is not the best write-up from me, maybe. This story might also make you hate the main female character. This story can make you cry. This story is the Father’s Day special by me. It is not special for many out there, actually most of you’ll out there, but for someone it is their life presented in words. This is not what comes to your mind when I say ‘Father’s Day Special’.

Once there was a man who kissed his wife when she gave him the most beautiful thing ever – it was his first child! A daughter! The man wanted a daughter and he was too happy that he expressed his feeling by distributing sweets to the entire hospital staff. The man had to get back home as he has to bring his wife’s stuff and also inform his family about his darling arriving in the world. The lady was back there with the daughter and her mother. The man was super excited and reached home, just when his father congratulated him and all were excited in the family. They all wanted to see the newborn.

The man was about to leave just when he got a call from a big company they said, “Hi Mr. ____________ we would want you to arrange a show for us. Our budget is Rs. 50,000/-” the man was over-whelmed, he was super excited now. The man along with his family reached the hospital and all were glad to see the newborn who was just perfect. The oldies started saying that the newborn looks like the father, some said she looks like the grandmother.

After the lady got discharged from the hospital and reached home she got a letter that her husband had kept for her. She kept the newborn on the cradle and opened the letter and was yelling in excitement. The letter said that the lady got a job in a government sector. The family declared the girl to be very lucky. Months passed by and the girl started growing up. She couldn’t sleep at night unless her father took her in his arms and hummed a Bengali song in her ears. The girl slept with her father. It was the perfect thing one would have ever seen. The girl slept like an angel and her father’s strong hands lightly kept on her.

 

They were the perfect family. Years passed by and the lady gave birth to a baby boy. Everyone were happy again. This time even more. But the father’s love for his daughter didn’t lessen. He loved her more than anyone else. He couldn’t see his daughter crying. The couple were happy wit htheir own jobs in the government sector. Also the man had an additional income where he was an event organizer. This family was then called ‘Rich People’. The girl grew up to be very fond of her father. She discussed all her problems with her father. She feared her mom.

The girl had decided in her mind that she will marry who is like her father. She told everyone how great her father is. She considered him as the most good looking man alive. The daughter looked like her father. Every inch of her face was designed by his genes. She was a carbon copy of his. It was a family ritual for the man, the lady, the daughter and the son that on every birthday in the family they go out for dinner and also every Friday and Saturday. In the restaurants, the man sat with his daughter while the son with the lady. People looked up to the man and called him the Perfect Family Man.

When a girl turns 14 or 15, she needs her father to protect her from street guys and evil men. Unfortunately the daughter didn’t get that protection. One fine morning, the lady found a letter under her pillow. It said: ‘I will be back soon.’ The lady called up her husband’s mobile and realized that he kept his mobile at home. She tried to page him, but the pager was at home as well. The lady was tensed but she had to send her daughter to school as she had her Ninth grade exams in school. The daughter got up but had a strange feeling. She always saw her father when she woke up, but today she couldn’t see her father beside her. She looked at her mom and saw her eyes red and swollen.

 

The daughter was confused and didn’t know what to ask. She decided to keep her silence and got ready for school. She was feeling upset because everyday her father took her to the school bus, but today it was her mom. Weeks passed and the daughter was blank and she knew that her father won’t come back ever again. But she knew nothing as to what was happening. She saw people in her house. One night when she heard her mother cry she went to her and said, “ma, you don’t worry. Where is papa?” her mother decided to tell her daughter everything. The mother told the daughter that her father left them. The girl was confused because she knew that when people die there is their dead body. The mother then explained to her that her father left them all alone to get a successful life. The daughter then understood that her father left them so that he can earn some more money to clear off his debts. She never knew her father had debts.

The entire family abandoned the daughter, lady and son. The lady decided to stop crying and take care of her children. She realized that her husband hasn’t left them a single money. She was glad that she had a job. The days passed by and the daughter saw many creditors coming at their doorstep to ask for their money. The lady didn’t know how to react. One day when the lady went to her office, she got a parcel waiting for her. She was scared. She thought her husband must’ve died and these are his things. But when she opened it she saw many gifts in the parcel and a letter. It was a letter from the man. The man asked for their new contact numbers and e-mail address. The lady took the parcel home. The daughter looked at the parcel and wasn’t excited about the gifts. She hated her father. She read the letter and told her mother, ‘he doesn’t have the courage to even write his own address here. He has given an e-mail address.’ After repeated force by her mother the daughter wrote an email to her father with their contact numbers. The father and daughter were in touch through e-mails. Not for once was the girl happy to read an email from her father. She simply read back the mail to her mother and looked at her expressions.

 

One morning, when the girl was sleeping she heard her mother scream. The girl got up immediately and found her mother fallen down and she realized that her mother got a paralytic stroke. She blamed her father for it. The mother was sent to a hospital for treatment by the other family members who had once abandoned her for one year. They thought hat the kids were too young to live by themselves and hence decided that the children will live with their paternal grandfather. The children weren’t happy without their mother. The girl had just appeared for her HSC when all of this happened. She scored very well and everyone was proud of her. She couldn’t take a course of her choice after HSC because her mother was broke by then and her grandfather believed only in B COM! The girl went to college everyday after which she used to work as a part timer. On Sundays she used to visit her mom to the hospital and never told her about any further mails sent by the father. The girl had once written to her father saying that her mother got a stroke and the father replied: ‘don’t worry. God is Great!’ the daughter understood that there is no chance he would come back. After a year’s time, the lady was discharged and the girl who used to be a baby of the family became the caretaker. She took care of her mother.

By now the daughter knew what she wanted in life. People asked her why she doesn’t want to get married and gave her advice, but she doesn’t want to face the same thing her mother faced. The girl who once said, “I’ll marry someone like my father” hated men and especially her father. The girl was now in her graduating year. The girl told herself, its been 6 years since papa left and I hate him more every day. She got a call from an unknown number, she answered the call and came to know that her father is ill. The left her classes and went back home to tell her mother about it. The mother was praying to God for her husband’s life. The girl got a call where a man a said, ‘your father is very ill and cannot talk on the phone. The doctor needs Rs. 10,000/- to do the treatment. He has got a diabetic stroke’ the daughter without any tears in her eyes told the guy on the phone, ‘I can’t send you Rs. 10,000/- without talking to my father.’ the man said, ‘he is not in a condition to talk.’ The girl said, ‘I am sorry.’ The man on the other end of the phone cursed the girl and said, ‘god should never give a daughter like you to anyone. You are a curse for your father.’ the daughter disconnected the phone and told her mother that the they are asking for money to which she said NO! The mother cried and told her daughter to send some money for her father’s treatment. The daughter knew during the first phone call that her father was no more. She had a feeling that she would never see him again or read his e-mails again. Tears rolled off her eyes and she wiped it off and told her mother to take her medicines. The girl went to the kitchen and threw away all the non-veg in the house. Just when she got a call and the man on the other end said, ‘now you can be happy. You didn’t send the money and your father is dead!’ the girl disconnected the call told her mother and brother. The brother was too young when the father left, he hardly remembers him, but he was consoling his mother, while the daughter made a few phone calls to her paternal relatives to tell them about it. The girl along with her brother and a paternal uncle went to the place where her father was dead. The girl arranged for everything that a son had to do and made it a point that her father’s funeral is done in the old traditional way. She arranged for everything without a tear in her eyes.

 

The entire family cursed her, and hated her for not crying, but she cried when she realized her father was no more. She cried every night after that. She cried in the darkness, when people are asleep. She told everyone she hates her father but what a daughter can do that. She was no different. She loved her father but she hated his deeds. She hated the fact that her father left them. She cries even now when she sees a father and a daughter in a movie or on the beach or in a restaurant. Everyone moved on in life after his death. But the daughter and the mother still have to struggle every single day.

I know this story by me isn’t a perfect Father Day post that people might expect but I just wanted to tell you’ll that: ‘Even this happens!’ not everyone are happy and cherish father’s day. For some children father’s day is a day to show love to their father, for some it is a day when they miss their lost father and for some it is a day they never want to celebrate. This story was about such a person who is there in the crowd, maybe you have seen her at work or at a mall. She is there somewhere out. She leads a normal life and enjoys her life, but its only she who knows how she feels when people ask her about her father. Its just she who knows how much she cries even now when she watches one of her father’s favorite films. She is the one who has a photo of her father in her wallet that no one knows about. It’s only her who doesn’t want to marry because she thinks all the men will turn out to be like her father. It’s only she who knows how she felt when people cursed her and told her how evil she is as a daughter. She doesn’t smile on father’s day like most of you out there. She cries. She might be reading the blog post and crying right now. Unfortunately this is a real story and not a made-up story.  This story might not have the special touch of LOVE. but if you understand this story, you’ll know what exactly love is!

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there! One message: please don’t leave your children, no matter how big they are they need you.

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