Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Thank You තාත්තේ !

Text message received from my daughter on the recent Fathers Day Celebrations made me rethink of my father.

How do I start was the main question.

He was a man of a few words.

I resembled most of his physical appearance than my other siblings but this quality of a few words, I was not blessed with.

My younger brother has received it from him and the God has very mysterious ways of working and assembling things.

He showed us the world literally by taking us to various places but his world was just confined within our shores only.

By introducing and encouraging us to read, he managed to take us far beyond his physically confined shores.

Every week he used to bring at least two books from the Library and we were on them like the vultures on a carcass.

He wanted us to think freely and never to be afraid of asking questions.

Though he was a man of few words, where his political alliance lies was no secret with Das Capital on the Book shelf.

With a rear show of emotions, he clinched his fist and held up in solidarity when the Nine o’clock News announced the departure of the last American helicopter from Vietnam.

We were having dinner in Badulla that day.

His other message though conveyed in a very subtle way but not in words was “Never come home by get beaten up”.

He was a southerner and his words and deeds truly reflected the enterprising southerners’ spirit always.

His two messages “Think Freely” & “Never come home by get Beaten up” came in really handy in our later lives but I do not think that none of us got around telling him that how much we were benefitted from those two messages. 


At least now we have such celebrations like “Fathers’ Day”, which we have never heard of when we were growing up, gives me an opportunity to at least say “Thank You තාත්තේ ! “ though it is a bit late now.

No comments:

Post a Comment