|| om tat sat ||

A Grand Father on a Father’s Day !

I woke up with my grand son tugging at me saying 'Tata let’s go out and walk in the back yard'. I told him 'Rahul you go ahead I will join you'. I got up quickly and moved into the back yard.

'Tata' is an affectionate address for a grand father and that is how my grandson calls me.

Rahul was already walking . Seeing me he shouted excitedly “Tata this is the course we will follow today !”.

Our backyard has a not too small rectangular cemented patch in a corner and an almost circular brick path around the big oak tree in the center. Both are connected by another strip of a brick path. The cemented rectangular part is good for a Basket ball or it could even be a kid’s tennis court. The brick path around the Oak tree is the running track for me and my grand daughter.

Every time he defines the ‘course’ to be followed in the walk and goes around. And I have to follow the same in the opposite direction so that we cross each other.

So I joined the 'course' already set by him.

And he is already set in his thoughts for the 'Father’s day'.

“Tata at the other end there are nice rocks . You please collect them and keep them on the bench. I will see if they are OK when I come there !! ”

For him Tata is one person to whom he can pass on all sorts of orders without being pushed back. He has already made up his mind to collect some rocks , paint them in colors and surprise daddy with “Happy Fathers day ! ” written on them. Mummy quickly became part of his secret project.

He is always in dreamy world.

The day he sees Lasit Malinga bowling Yorkers, he becomes Malinga.

Or the day he sees LeBron James and Kyrie Irving making those points on the basket ball court, he is LeBron James and I am Kyrie Irving !

If Warriors are on the high he is Curry and I am Thompson or Green.

And then we have to play a match - It is just one way traffic. He will be giving a running commentary hitting the basket from the “down town” or doing a slam dunk . It does not matter that he misses from “downtown" or that he is no where near the height required for “slam dunk”. All these are performed in his dream world.

I may be protesting . It is of no avail.

His live commentary continues. “LeBron James hits a three from the downtown again!". Having seen a flagrant foul replayed any number of times he will be asking me to commit a flagrant foul when he is shooting. Of course I cannot get myself to do it lest I hit him on his face !

In his dreamy world we could be on star wars journey. He is either Obi wan Kenobi or Yoda. I would be Anakin who has turned to dark side.

I protest “Rahul I can never be on the dark side”. “No Tata this is only a pretend!”

After several change of scenes finally he will always be Yoda .

I ask him why Yoda ? He is the most powerful and kind!

He would land on various planets being a Yoda fighting the dark forces.

On this father’s day he is the child wanting to surprise his daddy with stones painted in color and boldly written-

"Happy Father’s day !"

|| om tat sat ||

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