Evenings with Dad

Amongst my earliest memories as a child are evenings with dad or pa as I call him. As a 5/6 year old it was always a story about Biggles (for those who have no clue check WW2 stories) it’s kind of surprising as he never joined the armed forces but always had a Biggles story to tell me and my younger sister (when she achieved the capability of more than one brain cell - LOL) in a serial manner. Television in the late 70s and early 80s in India had not yet figured out what a serial is , well the telecast only lasted a couple of hours so it didn’t matter. 

In middle school the evenings were less frequent and probably limited to the weekends. We had grown out of the bed time story so the thing to look forward to was listening to vinyl records. There are some songs and albums that are still on rotation for me, all because of the exposure to some music on a weekend in an evening with dad. 

Senior school and college was quite different and for a few folks they would wonder why would a parent do that - let me explain. Darshana and me had the freedom to choose; it mattered not the choice, only the outcome was important. The evenings with pa basically revolved around denial and acceptance of the outcome of a choice I would have made. I loved those evenings; the 16 year old me trying to pull wool over the eyes of someone who clearly had 2 maybe 2.5 time the experience and knowledge I had; I could never and I am a better individual for that. 

As a middle aged man I am blessed that I can have an evening with pa, not every day or even every weekend it’s when it’s possible, and I consider my self blessed. The evening might land up being an argument with him and me not agreeing at all; but that is the fun. Its intellectual sparing that I now do hoping that I will loose and he will tell me a Biggles story. 

C