A Letter to Dad

This is a letter to a Dad from his son whose life has been majorly controlled by his father

Hi Dad,

What's up? You know, this thing is going to keep bugging me until we reach a breaking point. Because, let's face it, I am growing up and there are bound to be some rebelliousness  coming from me and they are bound to get more and more serious and more drastic as I get more and more older. Well this is my platform, and perhaps I can actually make some sense here than by just talking to you. So here goes.

Remember the first time we had a huge disagreement? I was in Class 5 or 6, and you had stripped me down to my underwear and kicked me out of your house. But that was something that you should have seen or known. Because dad, you should know that however decent your kids might have turned out to be, (and I again praise you for your awesome upbringing of me and my brother), but we have grown up in the 20th Century! There are bound to be some differences between the time You grew up and and the time we are growing up. And the changes are plentiful. Yes, of course, I know all about your thumb rules and they are also okay, but they have come to be some exceptions as well.

Then the time came when I ran away. Not a proud moment at all for any one of us. You again used your amazing personal contacts and tracked me back.

Well, I could go on and on about all this, but that's just going to slow us down. The point I'm trying to make is that every Kid needs some room to grow. Your rules and riding our wills was fine up until when brother went to College. I saw that you have not shown the same amount of constraint upon him as you have done to me. I realized this when you stopped worrying about brother so much, don't call him home very often and you have given him his own space to grown. Do you believe that brother is perfect? If you do, then there are some serious issues that you need to straighten out first. Because Dad, Everyone makes mistakes. Someone makes more mistakes than the other one. But Does that mean that the person who makes most mistakes doesn't deserve his will to make decisions? I think that is not right (I was going to use a 'stronger' word, but that will have to do). What you can do is to suggest/help/guide that person and give him a friendly advice like, "Dude, I don't think this is going to be a winner". Or something like that. But pressing and pushing your decisions upon the other, it makes almost a certainty that the other person is going to lash out. The longer it takes for him to lash out, the more danger it has of making a lasting impact.

This is what I was telling you the other day about the container and the water. You have to give me a little room to grow! And I like that you are very friendly with me, and you have made me very comfortable to your knowing to my life happenings, but dad, has it ever occurred to you that maybe somethings are best if they are not shared? Especially with your family! I mean c'mon, every one has secrets and likes to keep it that way. So if I don't tell you something and you are convinced of the fact that I am hiding something, it does not necessarily  mean that I'm up to no good, it just means that that's my thing to know. It's not that I don't respect you (because you of all people know how much I respect you), it's just that that somethings are not shared with your parents. It's weird. Like for example, you know that I'm talking to that south Indian Girl over the phone for almost a year now. You don't like that. And I try to hide whenever I am talking to her. Did you think that I thought that I was successful hiding it? Ha Ha! I know that you know that I talk on the phone with her, but don't be a spoilsport! Somethings in life have their own fun. Just trust me, and appreciate the effort that I put in hiding the things that you don't like me doing.

Which takes me to the next part of my mail. I just wanted to tell you that this is life dad. There is not going to be everything right, everything is not going to be your liking, there are going to be tough times! But this is life. And it is our family dad. You know how closely knit we are. So you just need to trust that everything is going to be just fine. You thrive on negative incidents that have happened in other peoples lives, but you should know that stopping us doing anything even remotely fun is not going to save us for long. If something is going to happen to us; it WILL happen, whether you like it or not. If it is Written by the Gods, nothing is going to stop it from happening. So what's the point in stop living if bad things are going to happen anyway? We should enjoy ourselves (staying out of drugs and other extreme stuff of course, nothing good comes out of them) and just grit our teeth when something happens. You know there's a very famous saying, "What doesn't kill me, Makes me stronger!". So every wrong decisions, every mistakes that I make in life, is a learning spree. I am gaining experience with everything. Because one day, when I will have kids, I will know what they are up to and I can tell them, "Kids, what are you going to do, is not good. How I know this? Because I have done this!"

See my point?

Anyway, I will try to go to nepal house today in 1st half, but there's lot of work in office as panday is not here.I don't know whether I will go to Kolkata, Saket sir is telling me to postpone my trip. I'm counting on Panday to return on time so that I can go. So my trip is still a maybe. But even if I go, or not go. You should make your plans independent of my schedule. If you guys want to go, then you should go whether I stay or go. And if you want to stay, then you should stay, regardless of my plans.

This has taken me a lot of time and I'm behind on my work. I'll talk to you soon. Take care, and don't even think for a second that I have forgotten the values, it's just that, I need to do some things on my own and I'd like it better if you don't constantly follow me and badger me with questions. It's like that saying, "ask us no questions and you will hear no lies". Hehehe

Well Dad, I really need to finish this, or I'm going to have to stay overnight! Hah!

Regards,

Son

Author's Note

There's a secret to this

Reviews

[Mayur Sadhu]

Its true, that our parents should us our own space to grow.
I liked the story... :)