Lessons I am still learning from my Father

                                                      Concern for People

Have you been in a situation where as a child you have been hit by a ball or got injured while playing. I think all of us have been in such a situation. I certainly have.

I still remember it was Delhi winter on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I was playing cricket, during my school days, with my friends in S.P.Marg, the army colony, in the open ground opposite our apartment. I was so happy, as I always was while playing cricket as that was the only thing I liked in my school days. I loved cricket in those days. I was batting with the intention to hit a six as I, like all kids at that age, thought I was the best cricketer, a Sunil Gavaskar in the making, if you will! At that moment I faced the ball, all such dreams came crashing down as the red shiny cricket ball was coming at me at full speed and instead of me hitting the ball for a six, I got hit for a six by getting hit on my lips with me profusely bleeding.

At that point, my good friend, let us call him Mr. Humanity, comes with me escorting me to my apartment. All the while, I am bleeding, the thought came of my Father, who was generally, not happy with me playing all the time. He has himself played for inter services cricket and having neglected his studies for a short time, he did not want me to go that way.

When I reached the apartment, there was my Father working on a report to the Indian army which was due in a few days. My mother, Sarala and sister Nita, were in their own activities relaxing on a Sunday beautiful Delhi afternoon until it did not seem so with me bleeding profusely. My Mother and Sister offered to take care of me, however, my Father will have none of it. He left what he was doing and how he will have taken care of a wounded soldier, if left to himself, he went about healing my wound, by cleaning it with Dettol softly and dried the wound, applied a gel and put a bandage of sticking plaster and encouraged me, which ended with my soul being healed, with the care my Father took of me! He then continued doing what he was doing until late at night and early morning until 4 am is what I can remember.

This is when I realized the soft side of my Father, otherwise, I had thought of him as strict disciplinarian like my Grandfather, Bhausaheb, who I have not known, who my Father describes as being very self-reliant, even after having lost his leg in Afghanistan.Incidently, my Grandfather was knighted for his life time work in the service of the nation.

This whole incident was a learning for me on how to be human, which at that tender age, I have not yet forgotten, even though it was not something big, however, as they say such small things create an impression for life!