Spending time alone with your parents
is sheer joy. Every time I get free time I sit with my father either talking to
him or reading a book with him. Losing a parent has taught me the real value of
parents and I make it a point that I never lose time while I have it to be with
the only one I am left with. So I usually prefer being left alone with him
rather than attending some function happening at a neighbor’s or going for a
movie.
It was one such time when I was at home
a few weeks ago. I and my father were the only ones at home. After lunch we
were sitting outside in the sun, when he wanted to take bath and I told him I
will prepare hot water for his bath. It took me about half an hour to heat up
the water and prepare the water for his bath. As I was almost done preparing
the water, I asked him to get a towel and get into the bath. After a few
minutes, he emerged out of his room with a towel and some clothes to be changed
into. I told him the water was ready in the bathroom. He said, “Thank you”. A
mere ‘thank you’ by a grateful father to his daughter but that brought back
memories of my own childhood. Each time I needed to take a bath, my father
would always heat up the water and reach it till the bathroom. All I had to do
was take a towel and take bath. As I reached back into those memories, I didn’t
remember ever thanking my father for the deed. Preparing the water for my bath
is but just a minor part of the things he has done for me and my siblings,
apart from that there are a lot of greater things that my father has done for
us but then I never thanked him for any of those. In fact I don’t remember ever
thanking my parents for anything they did for me.
Likewise, it had me thinking about how
many children of my age and the ones older than me would have thanked their
parents. I suppose, kids these days thank their parents for things they do for
them. For example, my niece who is in the sixth standard this year thank her
mother every time after getting her mother’s help with her homework and she
thank her father for things he does for her. Modernization and education have
brought both the kids and the parents to the next level. I do not mean that the
older generations have not been educated. There are those who are highly educated
but their parents are not. So, even if the kids thank their parents it would be
of less value as the parents would not understand it in the first place.
Secondly, even if the kids thank the parents, then they are bound by the
stereotypical thinking of the people. While the educated knows, what it means,
when the kids thank their parents, people in the villages understand it less. I
suppose this is one reason why the kids don’t thank their parents even when
they are thankful.
I am not sure, what was the reason
behind me not thanking my parents for anything they did for me though I was
thankful for those deeds. I now often think, was it the surrounding that I was
brought up in or was it the elders that I followed that had that effect on me?
Though I have been brought up in both urban and rural places, I have not had
that experience of meeting someone like myself thanking their parents. And they
may not have done so as they like me may not have met someone who would thank
their parents. And the elders may not have thanked their parents because their
elders did not do so. So it probably comes from times immemorial. But now I can
see the change happening. And even I make started thanking my father for
everything he does for me. It was happiness I experienced. That, ‘thank you’
was another gift my father gave me. I learned, what it is like to be thanking
my father for what he does for me. Otherwise my parents would never have known
how thankful I am to them.
Thank you Apa and Ama. I am glad you
are my parents. I love you guys. :)
