Relationships – The Day I Finally Understood My Father | Story by Manvi ,17, Kolkata

We are social creatures; we often need external validations from others for our efforts. Being applauded for our hard work once in a while, is always motivating. My father was not one to dole out compliments.

Call it my immaturity, but this made me question if he believed in me. But one incident made me change this thought.

It was the last day of my class 12 board examinations and I was quite nervous as I walked towards my school.

With my mind clouded with these thoughts, I didn’t realise when I had bumped into a small boy sitting on the side of the road. His face was pale white and tears were dripping from his eyes. I bent towards him and asked him the reason of his sorrow. Hiccupping, he replied that he had come out of his house to play football and had lost his way back.

I knew that the right thing to do was to help him irrespective of my board exam. So I took him with me to the nearest police station. The police took all the necessary details from the young boy. While I sat down thinking about the consequences of not giving the exams – would I have to repeat a year, how would my father react, what would happen now? I knew that I would not only have to face my father but also have to compensate for my actions.

Meanwhile, my father had been called by the police officer to the police station to take me home. As soon as he entered, the expressions on his face made it clear that I would surely have to face his wrath.

He straightaway went to police officer to ask about what had happened. I bent my head and waited for my dose of scolding as he walked towards me. But instead, he lifted my head and with a small smile said, “I am proud to be your father.” This instantly brought tears into my eyes and without a second thought I hugged him tightly.

That day I realised that my father loved me immensely even though he was not very expressive. I instantly regretted the thoughts I had earlier, and decided to spend more time with him and make more efforts to improve our relation.

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