This is one incident which had been stuck in memory since long time but whenever I every time it, it gives me a new meaning and thoughts. When it happened it was a very simple and straight forward incident that must have happened in most of the child's life but if we think about it, we find how much sacrifice our parent do for us and how much they love us. It was primary school time and our drawing teacher asked us get Tube oil colors. I came home and informed my Father to get me the same. We used to have drawing class twice in a week. He keep forgetting to bring that for continuous 2-3 times and one day our teacher warned us that if we do not bring then we will get punished. I was not very happy and started following up with my Father. He was in Military Police and they were very busy those days. And D day came and next day was again drawing class and I ensured to wake up early to remind my Father and he said he will certainly bring it that day. I could not sleep that night and kept waiting for him to come home. He came after midnight as he was involved in doing some investigations (that I came to know later on when we used to talk about that incident). But at that age all these things were totally out of my understanding. When he arrived, I just saw that his hands were empty. We never dare to confront our Father.
Only reaction which I had is two drops came out of my eyes. He observed that, he was very tired but he did not even change his uniform and told my mother that he will be back in an hour. I had lost hope and went to sleep. When I woke up, I was having Tube Oil Colors to take to school though my Father has already left for office. I was too young to realize many things but some how that touched me. His love and caring behind his tough nature was some how got visible to me. Later on I came to know from my mother that he went all the way to the city as there were no shops open in cantonment at that time. There also he has to wake up friendly shopkeeper to open the shop and get those Tube oil color. He came back around 04:00 AM in morning and go back at 07:00 to office as usual. I never used those colors much and those were with me (go dried of course) for so long. I do not know if this mean anything for anyone but somehow it mean a lot for me. At that time, I felt that he can do anything for us if he wants. Then later when I grew some how, I started realizing despite all his obligations how much he care for us.
When I grew further to understand family life, I started realizing how tough it was for him to handle all this. Now when I have child, I realize what it mean to balance professional and family life. Hats off to him who managed it so well.....