Mom called me yesterday and told me about my dad retirement which is in November. It came as a surprise to me ,as everyone of us in the family was positive about his service extension to two more years i.e. to the age of 62 . Whenever i would talk to my father about his retirement he would always be in denial and non acceptance mode. So yesterday, when mom and he went to a photo studio for taking his picture for the retirement, he was very silent and my mom has tears in her eyes. My mother was upset because my father was about to get promoted to a position which he has always deserved in the next few months and which he cannot get now because of the retirement. My dad was upset because the sixth pay commission took a way too long time to revise his salary to a respected one only last year and only if the extension would have happened, he would have been able to perform some of his key responsibilities. I know it sound like a typical middle class attitude but it’s so true for a person like him.
My father was born a few years after independence to a family of a govt teacher. My grandfather died young and being the eldest of the six siblings, he fulfilled all his responsibilities. He funded for all his siblings educations and kept all of them with him for their higher studies as he was the only one from the family living in a big city. He took care of them till they are settled. Once that responsibility was settled then came us, the family. He worked his entire life providing all of us a good life and feels that only if this retirement would have extended he could have done better. I don’t have a heart to talk to my father about this, as for me he has done the best of whatever he could do with the limited resource and unlimited responsibilities. He should see the affection in my grandmother’s eye for him being the best son , the gratitude in my uncle/aunt’s eyes for being the best of a brother and a father figure, the respect in his subordinate’s eye for being the most honest employee in the organisation. And if he still think that there are few things still left undone then we , his children promise him to accomplish those :’)
There's no like or superlike feature here.... I loved the post... :)
ReplyDelete@ Neel: Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteMay be u should talk... and let him know how much proud you are about him. (Though he may know it already) ... :) Life goes on....
ReplyDelete@satish : True :)
ReplyDeletehi..had been thinking of posting a memory since the time i read the post..
ReplyDeletei still remember it was you who told the bewildered group of us (class 6th-ers or so)in the geography class about the country's boundary issues of the J&k region..
uncle's story resembles the story of my father's life at many points..you are a proud daughter and i am sure your parents are also as much proud of you..
wishing him a happy retirement.loved the last lines..