LOVE THY FOLKS

"Love your family, spend time, be kind & serve one another. Make no room for regrets. Tomorrow is not promised & today is short".

She was my elder daughter, named Ankita.?She was born on 20 Sep 1989.?At that time, I was posted in Jodhpur, 10 Sqn, IAF.?Me and my wife, Rekha have very fond memories of her birth and how she was the star attraction of any social gatherings that we used to have.

I went on short leave to my home, Ambala and Ankita was delivered a bit pre-mature. So I had to call up my Squadron in Jodhpur and ask for extension.?I contacted Air Traffic Control, Ambala and requested them to convey the message that we were blessed with daughter, and that I had requested for extension of leave.

My Commanding Officer VK Verma, (who retired as Air Marshal VK Verma, fondly remembered as Charlie Verma) was flying at that time.?However, he was conveyed the message of birth and leave extension.?Return came the reply “CONGRATS AND EXTENSION GRANTED”.??

Those were the days.

Coming back to her story.?So she was a normal girl and we had all the fun associated with bringing up the first child.?Time passed. I retired from Indian Air Force on 31 Dec 2007 and joined Jet Airways, the pioneer in Indian Civil Aviation scene at that time.?My job involved lots of tours, both within India and abroad.?However, over a period of time, I got engrossed more and more and more into my office work and tours.

Ankita loved to travel and wanted to go places with me. However, due to certain reasons, I ?took her along not many times.?Ankita, like any other girl, also had dreams, wanted to dress up and get her photographed.?I even remember having been wild on her for some thing or the other, which is quite normal for parents at times.

It was in Feb 2017, that she complained of a lump in her left breast.?Hoping for the best, we went through all the tests and our worst fears came true: she was suffering from Breast cancer.?To cut the story short, in Apr 2017, we were told by Oncologist that she was to live only for 3-6 months. ?

And on 05 Jan 2018, at 0332 hrs, she breathed her last.?That was the New Year Gift from God to us that year. From Apr 2017 onwards, our only mission in life was to fight the disease, take the best care of her and give the maximum of love and affection possible.

Now, looking back in time, we have several questions in mind.?Couldn’t it be that I would have taken my family along with me on tours?

Was it possible for me to happily grant her wish to get the best dress possible on her birthday, within my reach??

And was it possible to give her all the love that we could while she was still alive??And so on.?

And now, here we are, with a kind of guilt within us.?There remain many unanswered questions when we look at her photographs.?We feel a void.?We feel we could have done some thing more while she was still alive.

And I don’t want YOU to have the same feeling.?I want you to learn from our experiences.?We are in a rat race with our own selves.?We don’t have time for each other.?In fact, we don’t have time for ourselves too.?So where is the time for love!?And this realization dawns on us only when we depart from each other.?But by that time, it may be too late.?And then, there is a feeling of large, black void, which we cannot fill.

So love your family NOW, before it is too late.?

Spend some quality moments which stay in the memories like fragrance.?

Make it a point to meet your elders NOW, and take their blessings, while they are still alive.?Make it a point to give them a huge hug.?Because it may be too late for you to do that later.?

So take a pledge. Now.?You will do all that you can to love your family. Before it is too late.