After singing paeans to mothers, it is but fair that we give fathers their due. Especially those fathers who are blissfully unaware of their kids’ activities, school timings, assignments. They are the fat, relaxed fathers as against the fat, harried mothers. So, here goes …..
I know one particular father-daughter pair who always , always did a little routine of good-byes. There was a high five, a peck on the cheek and a good-bye wave. Another’s son used to narrate nursery rhymes all along the way from home to school. Another chubby father “ daughter duo (the father definitely chubbier than the daughter) finalise the lunch that the father would carry for her post-school. Such stories make us all believe the education is engaging, fun and an active process. They make us want to have kids, savour their idiosyncrasies, fall in love with life itself.
And then there’s me and my mother - ilk.
‘Why did you not finish the banana? Eating bananas is very healthy. You should always have a nutritious breakfast. I hope you packed your bag properly. When is that assignment on trees to be given? I will get green chart paper today. And listen, don’t fight in class. Do your dance steps properly the way I showed you last night when I was dancing. Okay? We have to learn the poem today. I will show the actions. Look at me, I am talking to you. Why are you running? Don’t run. Okay, now give me a kiss. Don’t fuss, let me hug you. AiyyyOuch! You have stepped on my feet.’ Such stories don’t make me believe in anything. They don’t make me want anything, other than to fly back home and drink my hot cup of tea.
Having finished their good-byes, fathers go on with their day, not once remembering that they have a kid in school. They go for work, attend meetings, complete their day’s jobs, and so on. Mothers, on the other hand, just cannot let go of the uneaten banana, though they also go on with their jobs. The rest of the day the unfinished banana remains in the mother’s mind and the lilt of the mispronounced nursery poem remains in the father’s mind. Small wonder then who is going to pick up the daughter from school.
In heart-tugging incidents, this one should be up there. A father collecting a daughter from school is very different from anyone else collecting anyone else from school. He tucks that loose wisp of her hair in her pony (Did he tie it himself in the early-morning dash?), ties her school belt firmly again, bends down and fastens her shoes ....all the while asking his favourite lady how her day was. She jabbers and jibbers and suddenly pecks him on the cheek. He laughs - a full throaty, assured laugh and rapidly swoops her in his strong arms and whooshes her through the air. Now, she laughs that full throaty, assured laugh. She beams in his glow and he too - she waves the thousandth good bye to her friends. He waves too. (Have you noticed that? A father waving good bye to his kids' friends - so darn sweet). It is a most beautiful day, after all.
No mother can match this, ever. And hence, there must be a law “ a law that mandates only father dropping kids to school. Actually, a law will not work, because it is just so evident that love is at work here.
Sonia Kuncalienker is an avid writer on matters that have no importance to anyone in the universe
