Happy Daddy's day

To

Daddy

From

Jr.

Sub : Happy daddy's day.

Dear Daddy,

Have a wonderful Father's day. I know you were invited to my daycare for Fathers day function. That too on Friday evening at 4:00. I know you will have to miss the weekend last minute planning meetings and come, which also means your phone will ring friday night and over the weekend and mommy will do "Pilliar eyes" at you all weekend. Thanks for coming!

This year I am surprising you, again! I know how you are really happy with whatever I give you on father's day and act surprised and give me a big hug and a kiss. I have given you trinkets made from paper bits, pieces of cloth left over in the tailors shop, ice cream sticks, old pepsi bottle lids, and things that look like they were picked from the street by my teachers who are hell bent on teaching me valuable subjects like economics at this young age. I also know that you really liked the ice cream stick "I love you daddy" tag I gave you two years ago and display it on the rearview mirror, but the rest of my gifts are nowhere to be found!

This year I am giving you the "#1 Dad" medal. I know you like this one too. You were wearing it even after you came home! But as an additional surprise, here is what I have done with my teachers. We have a brand new mousepad for you with my portrait on it!! Now, now. Stop crying. I don't know if you are really touched by my going the extra mile, or if you are shedding tears for the fact that this daycare actually shelled out money for a gift! Either way, I am happy for you. Now you can finally show your co-workers that you got a commercialized product for a Father's day gift that stands up to those coffee mugs, photo frames, etc. that you will see tomorrow. I know daddy. I know. We live in America.

I give you my usual love and you are still the best!

Love

Jr.

ps. I have another surprise for you. I have taught the little one to say "de da, ove you". I was actually going for "Daddy, I love you", but it is a question of time before she gets the "I" and the "L".

pps. Mommy thinks you are expecting too much. You can't seriously expect to start "onnu vitta mama's rendu vitta marumaan day" just based on the gift potential.

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From

Daddy

To

Jr.

Sub : Thank you

Dear Jr.,

I actually always love the time and effort you put into the father's day gift. All these things don't really matter. I love you all the same. You already know that you girls have me wrapped around your finger, and you put that knowledge to good use! When I was a kid we never even knew about a special day for father's or mother's. We knew childrens day was November 14th and that too because it was more of Nehru thatha's birthday than anything else. For us every day was father's day. We "paduththied" daddy all the same, on father's day or on any other day. You do the same.

Keep the trinkets coming. Who knows, at this rate, I might actually talk to your teachers on suggestions for next years gift. I also have to go find out if mommy bankrolled the mousepad and is not telling me.

You are a darling.

Love,

Daddy.

Ps. you are doing some great work with your little sister in building her vocabulary. I can also see that you have some strange hypnotic hold over her and see listens to you more than she listens to me. Please remember, we are a team. We are counting on your new powers to help the family.

pps. Mommy tells me that she had nothing to do with the mousepad. I am really impressed wih your daycare now! I will ask for a USB drive with your photo on it for next year's gift. I was not serious when I came up with the other relative's days. It was just to make a point with mommy.

---

From

The #1 Daddy

To

All daddy's out there (with or without the medal)!

Happy father's day!

Sundar.

.

The ties that bind!

When it comes to binding two surfaces together, there are many approaches. In fact gluing two surfaces or nailing them together would probably result in a much better bond than just using some form of rope or thread. However, when it comes to bonds that last, they always have "tying" associated with the bond.

Caveman probably used rope like material long before he came up with nails or glue! Maybe that is the historical reason ? But in retrospect, humans have associated permanent or long standing bonds with a tie.

The earliest and strongest is the umbilical tie ! Somehow even after the bond is broken physically, it leaves behind an imaginary connection that allows a mother to remote control her child, when he is 13964 Kilometers (or 8678 miles) away. A mothers ability to make a grown up child cry over a few words during a phone call, and the even more amazing ability to restore the same grown up child and make him wipe off his tears within a few minutes by calling him back, has to do more with the imaginary connection than the phone connection!

Then of course comes the tie that follows the umbilical tie. The "aranakayaru" tie! A black thread that the dad ties around a baby's waist on the day the kid is named as an attempt cast off the evil eyes! Hope this tie works as well for me as it did for my daddy!

The third tie that I can remember is the tie that initiated me into culture and religion. I am refering to the Upanayanam ceremony and the sacred thread that has been slung across my shoulder since I was thirteen! Although I have not been as faithful to all the duties and daily prayers that I agreed to perform, I still have not forgotten them. Just do them at my own terms and have come to accept it for what it is worth!

The fourth memorable tie is the tie that binds me to education and my profession! Well, I am talking about the colorful sash that my co-advisor tied around my neck during my Ph.D. graduation ceremony! Something to remember for the rest of my life. I have been studying all my life, but that moment stood for a milestone along that path. It was almost like stopping in Coalinga on a long drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles and smelling the cows, except much nicer!

The last and most important was the knot I tied around my fiance's neck to get her to be my wife! Of course she was my fiance for a total of one week before she became my wife! Cannot put my finger on it, but was it the knot, the circumstances under which it was tied, the audience at the event, the rituals ? Guess it does not really matter because somehow it gets etched deep down into your head and can still resurface from that depth real fast!

The same ties keep going over and over again, generation after generation, binding people in an inextricable way.

Ah, the ties, they do bind !

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