A Dad's Dilemma

He strolled for minutes ..nah it seemed hours..before he could hear the cries from the operation theater and the nurse came out to inform him that he had been blessed with a daughter. At that moment gushed in feelings of various kinds: love, pride, protection and so on. he was a father now. There was someone who would call him 'papa' or 'dad'.

No one knows how time passed and the little bundle of joy started growing and reacting to his voice and kisses. Though men claim to be macho and strong but like women they too have a profound weakness. Women love the dark mane on their head but the men love the shorter version on their faces. Our new dad started thinking whether his lovely mustache of which he is as fond as Poirot was of his, was hurting his child and then knocked this thought on the doors of his mind: to keep it or not to keep it.

A Hamlet-like dilemma gripped him and he spent nights wondering what should be done. One fine day he decided that the mustache would stay in place but the beard should go. Later when he came to meet his daughter (minus the beard), the child just stared at him as if trying to recognize him. This was something he hadn't anticipated and so both the mustache and the beard (only for short spells) stay where they ought to be and one can hope the child doesn't ask her mother later,"Mom, how could you marry someone with a mustache and a beard?"



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I need a break.....

I need a break from some things and one of them is Bandhs. Bandhs are the in-thing in Patna as its nearly election time and each political party calls for a Bandh someday or the other. The funny thing is that two or more parties may want to organize a bandh on the same issue but they call for a bandh on different days in order to protect their individual identities. As a result on Monday we had the BJP-JD (U) combines bandh against the rising prices and on Wednesday, the bandh is organised by CPI(ML) on another raging issue: naxalism. I do not know what fun these parties get in organizing these bandhs. Don't they realize that such bandhs disrupt public life, lead to hugh economic losses (refer to TOI dated 06.07.10) and cause a lot of nuisance? When I was in school, I looked forward to these bandhs as it gave us a day off in the middle of the hectic academic year. By the time I reached college, bandhs of all types became the norm of the day and invariably we would have quite a numb...
Read more

Honour Killings or Dishonour Killings?

Today's newspapers again carry horrifying stories of killings supposedly called 'Honour Killings'. The question is what is honourable about these acts? To a mind like mine they seem to be bringing 'dishonour' upon society. Not delving into specific stories, one would like to focus critically on the reasons behind such gruesome murders. Most of these murders are related to the institution of marriage, specifically inter-caste, inter-religion, same-gotra marriages. And the reasons are sociological. Migration to cities, swallowing up of villages by cities has led to a disintegration of certain customs and traditions which were taken for granted by the earlier generation. Exposure to western culture and changes in life style has brought about a change in the attitude of the younger generation. Working in offices of MNCs one is not bothered with issues of caste or gotra. The choice of a life partner in such cases is governed by emotional and intellectual needs. This is ...
Read more

Net the NET

NET or National Eligibility Test is conducted by the UGC and is a qualifying exam for future lecturers and researchers. With the 6th pay commission the number of candidates appearing has gone up but the number of candidates qualifying the exams has been pretty low. Does this mean that UGC NET is a tough nut to crack? Or are our students not prepared for such exams? well, in most cases the latter seems to be true. Students pursuing their Masters in Universities like JNU, DU clear this exam before completing their Masters. Some at places like BHU take a few more chances. But those at Patna University, Magadh University and other state universities seem to take forever to clear this exam. Where is the problem? Is the syllabus of the state universities not at par with that of the central universities? What are the teachers in the state universities doing in the classroom that the students are left terrified of the NET? What I have observed over the years and specially in the subject of Eng...
Read more