Not daddy’s girls

Achan with his best friends!!

My sister and I were never ‘daddy’s little girls', in the strict sense of the word. We were never overtly pampered nor was bratty behavior encouraged.

He was not one of those dads who would swoop us off our feet and whirl us around, so that the world around us seems cocooned in a happy blur nor was he given to display of emotions. But he was also the kind of dad, who never missed a PTA at school or would clap the hardest, even if we were the insignificant little bushes in the school play.

 My sister and I have found him by our side, whenever we needed him and even

when we did not. He drove us around everywhere; to extra classes and blood tests or to the same boutique for the third time in a single day.  He made us feel that we are special enough for him, to put his life on hold for us.

Now my sister and I are lucky to see our children share a bond with him, which is even more special than what we had. He is their friend, playmate, Santa Claus and guardian angel all rolled into one. The three of them have a formed a circle of love and camaraderie so strong, that even we, as their mothers, find ourselves on its periphery.

I sometimes think of him welcoming me into this world, on his birthday. Would he have felt deliriously happy and excited, to share his birthday with his first born or would he have taken me in his arms, as if it were the most normal thing in the world? I like to believe, that the answer lies in the name that he chose for me.

Anupama- beyond comparison with something else.