Father’s Day

The third Sunday of June is dedicated for the fathers and is celebrated over 50 countries around the world as the Father’s Day. Many a people get into the controversy whether an exclusive day be dedicated to show our love and affection to the relation of the man called a father. Leaving aside the pros and cons and getting into any discussion on the subject, I continue to celebrate the day as there is no harm to fix a day to express our love exclusively for a cause. And remember, if one doesn’t love a father throughout one’s life, one won’t even be doing it on this day as well. So like a birthday, there is no harm celebrating a Father’s or a Mother’s Day.

So back to Father’s Day. It’s the day to honour a man we call our father. A man with who we have the paternal bond and the one who sacrifices his entire life to bring up his children, give them the best of education and life so that they in turn are shaped and groomed to become fathers one day.

Those who have been fathers would find how difficult it is to be one and practice things ourselves first that we teach our children to do. Our children, specially the sons, watch us very closely to find the strength of character in us. And unless we prove it to them, we are failing in our many duties to them. And if we are successful in our teachings and their practical manifestation, we draw that respect that the relationship demands from them. As Clarence Budington Kelland said, "He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it."

The above photographs when seen from bottom right in anticlockwise is all son-father relation. Starting from bottom right are my two sons, followed by me – their father, followed by me the son and my father (top right), then my father the son to my grand-father and finally my grand-father the son to my great-grand father on extreme top left. This is how the circle continues. I am sure the way my father loved his father, I also loved him no less as I found him a pillar of strength for me all along my life. Although, he left me for his heavenly abode many many years ago, I still find him beside me when am at loss to do something. I wonder if I had been the same for my children or not. But whatever one does, he does in his own right.

So my best wishes to all fathers today and I hope their children celebrate the day with them as the day demands of them.

Read More on Father’s Day: Wikipedia