Fathers & Sons

A posting by my brother on Facebook of some old snaps of my father re-triggered a wave of nostalgia and introspection.

The snaps were of my dad as a young father.  The snaps captured him well.  He had what is called style - his dress style would put James Bond (whose keen fan he was) to shame. And everything about him spelt under-stated elegance.

There is much to admire in my father - his courage, the way he organised his career and life, his focus, his self-confidence, his razor sharp sense of humour, and the young age at which he achieved success .....

I still remember the bed-time stories he used to narrate, and the extremely animated discussions about anything under the sun, we used to have around the dinner table.  The real life lessons that he passed on to me had immense use to me in my own life and career.

Often when I think back about him I get a deep complex - will I ever be as good and as successful as my dad?  Will I be as good a father as he has been to me?

I think deep within, every son carries a certain awe about his father.  This awe only becomes stronger as the son becomes older and approaches different life stages that his father too must have gone through.  All the questions on life's trade-offs and the kinds of compromises he might have had to make for the sake of his family - all this makes better sense to me now.

I am deeply grateful to my father, and I hope I will someday have the same courage and wisdom he showed in the way he lived.