My Father, My Hero

Every once in a while Life reminds you of the Greater forces working as you go about making your own plans.

After spending six weeks in hospital, my father passed away on Sep 22, 2010. He was 68. He had a stroke and was on his way to recovery when the infections refused to leave him. Long story short, he was a brave man who fought very hard to get over it, to spend an additional month with us, until he could no longer fight anymore.

In retrospect, the last month has been one of many small miracles. It was as if God had decided to give us all one month time bonus, so that we could show him how much he meant to us and vice versa.

I will never forget the first time I fed him homemade lunch at the hospital. I also gave him his favourite fruit - grapes and he held my hand for a few minutes, without saying anything. Now I wish I had said something more at that moment, I felt blessed to share that moment with him. I will never forget that determination he had, when he told me "Anu, I will come back in 5 days," and how everytime the nurses would ask him how he was he would say "Good" and put his thumb up.

It was difficult to see him suffer the last two weeks and when it was time for him to leave us, I was upset and yet relieved, because that would mean he didn't have to suffer anymore.

I've never written anything about my dad in my posts because he was always there, giving snippets of knowledge through bits of conversation. A man of few words, he was the kind of person who knew and understood a lot, but didn't think it was necessary to say it out aloud. He was the one who instilled the love of reading,words and language in me and in his own, quiet way led me to the path of writing as my chosen profession, my passion. His calm and cool demenour was a breath of fresh air. If he didn't agree with the way some people behaved, he simply accepted them and went on with his own daily activities. He was always there for me and I could talk to him about anything and he would listen. And even though I never told him many things, he always understood how I felt. He was the best father I could have ever asked for.

I'm so lucky to have had him in my life for the past 34 years.

He had a nature you could not help loving
And a heart that was purer than gold
And to those who knew him and loved him
His memory will never grow old

Rest in peace now Acha, you are still here with us, with me, because you will always be in my heart, until the end.