Observe, Exemplify, Accept, & Celebrate!

A Journey of Fatherhood

- Kartik Bajoria

 

At a rather formative stage in my life, owing to a less-than-ideal dynamic with my own father, I developed a strong notion about what kind of parent I would be. I'm not suggesting that I had fully formed or specific ideas. I did, however, understand a broader ethos that I, decades on, would try and inculcate into my own parenting style - Friendliness.

As I grew older and was more away from home at boarding school, realizations dawned. It occurred to me that as a child of my parents, I craved their endorsement in two specific facets:

1 That they accept me with all my flaws, talents, desires, interests, hopes, fears, and everything in between.

2 That they validate me for all my triumphs, modest or monumental.

Whether these approvals sought came my way or not is a different matter; they made me understand the mind of a child.

My wife Anuja and had Krisha, our now _ five-and-a-half-year-old daughter when was nearly 38! Certainly late by the standards of Indian society. At her birth, in the delivery room, felt ecstatic. A euphoria had hitherto not experienced, perhaps because had prayed nightly through our pregnancy for a girl I confess to not being particularly fond of boys)! Immediately after, there was a storm of emotions ranging from trepidation to abject fear! Perhaps the giant in me didn't have enough faith in his own genteel side and was alarmed at some rather silly, almost comical scenarios that included, and were not limited, to physically crushing this diminutive, porcelain-like newborn!