Gratitude diaries- 3

My father

Pages and pages could be written about my father without them doing justice to him. He is a public figure, a minor celebrity and an inspiration to many people in our home state of Maharashtra for his rise from humble beginnings to great power and influence. To me, he is more the father who sacrificed personal happiness and comfort to give my sister and I a stable home. He is hero for having lived with a schizophrenic wife for his entire adult life. My sister and I are bound to our mother by blood and could never abandon her. But he is not and could have, easily. It would have been far easier for him to walk away and start a new life with someone else. But he stayed for our sakes. and even now, when my sister and I live away, in our own homes with own families and can give limited time to the well-being of our mother, he is the one who is her rock, her support and main care giver. I can never be grateful enough.

I am lucky to have a living example in him of grit and determination, of trying, failing, never giving up and of being courageous. Unfortunately, I have not internalised these traits as much as I'd like to have, because my personality is fundamentally different from his. But at times, I've tried. My values, ethics, sense of social responsibility and empathy towards the poor and weak, comes directly from him. I modelled my behaviour on how I saw him behaving. How many people have the opportunity to have such a strong role model in their lives? I lucked out.

He has always been extremely supportive in everything we set out to do. Even now, I know I can count on him any time of the day or night, if I need his help, whether emotionally, practically or financially. His love is unconditional.

I have often in the past lamented about my difficult childhood and family life in my early years, but now I can look back and see that inspite of the difficulties, I was very lucky indeed to be surrounded by love. And looking at each of the three main figures in my life- mother, sister and father, I realise that I could not wish for anything other than these three people to have lived my life with.

It is no small thing to be thankful for, that they are all alive and in good health. What more could i want from life? May God keep them well and happy, all into ripe old age, along with me.