Father - Your First Super Hero

My childhood was filled with questions of all kinds. I think most of our childhood is the same. We see something and we want to know what, why and how. We don’t have the patience or the ability to actually go ahead, research things and find answers to what troubles our mind. My Amma (Mom) had once told me while discussing Calvin and Hobbes, that a kid’s brain is mostly used creatively; to create martian landscapes and superhero dens, all in the comfort of your living room. All the logical reasoning and analytical skills (which I still haven’t mastered – thanks to CAT for putting me in perspective) haven’t quite realized its full potential. So at this time you see a postbox and your mind creates this implausible assumption about it working on principles of ducts and vacuum cleaners; at least I did. So where is that masked superhero who has answers to all our questions? Tada! Suuuuper Dad to the rescue.

Dad (‘Acha’ for me) is your wikipedia before internet existed; before encyclopedia existed; hell, before you even started to read. Well, we all came to know as we grew up, that maybe he didn’t have answers to all your questions. He is not exactly what you would call a Super Hero either; but when your curious mind falters at all levels trying to find an answer that will put an end to the alarm of curiosity ringing continuously inside your little head, he comes to the rescue giving answers, even if made up ones.

It is sad to know that, we slowly stop admiring him, after a while we start teasing him for not catching up with the world (“Geez, why do you type so slow?”) and ofcourse, give it some more time and you will start hating him for coming into your personal matters. You will resent his fatherly advice when he tells you about your weaknesses. Be it your maths classes or your romantic relationship, Dad’s words of wisdom becomes a not so keenly awaited one.

Even through all this torture, he shows amazing work ethics (if fatherhood can be considered the least rewarding of jobs) by being there for you, when you come back home fighting with the neighborhood kids, or when you flunk your midterms and expect a major whipping from Mom. It is amazing that he completely understands how to react in situations where we are completely helpless to change things. You broke something means you broke something, scolding for lengths and punishing will not really change the laws of time and bring it back; though a little of it will remind you to be extra careful the next time round.

Its amazing how Bill Watterson got it perfectly right when depicting the Dad in Calvin and Hobbes. The way situations act out in Calvin and Hobbes seems almost autobiographical to me. He (Dad) gives explanations to all your questions, without saying he doesn’t know. He never really stamp out the creative lantern that is burning bright inside your head. When you grow up, you realize world and forget fantasy. It’s a great thing that Calvin never grew up. Sometimes I wish even I was stuck in an eternal cycle of being a 6 year old. But then again, it’s the losses that we face in life that makes us realize that, well we have lost something. If there is no chance to think and realize what we have lost, we never come to appreciating it in its truest essence. And if life didn’t make this cycle of first being a kid to your Dad and then a Dad to your kid, you wont ever probably realize that, even if your Dad wasn’t a super hero, he was one hell of a super human being.

Dedicated to the most ubercool Dad in this whole wide world: My Dad