The Father's Day in our times.
During my childhood days I would not know that there happened a day specially assigned to or associated with one who is known as a "father". Even my father had no knowledge of it.
In fact it mattered little for me as well as my father about the necessity of knowing the existence of this day.
I am also not sure whether this so called father's day ever existed in the past in such popularity even in culture wherefrom it is presumed to have come in our society or country.
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In our times father had full liberty to take decisions on behalf of his son or daughter. It was he who took decision in all matters as to what and how his son/daughter should wear, study etc.
He would decide whom his son or daughter should marry.
Some parents even took decision not only on behalf of his son but son's son also.
The son or daughter was supposed to accept a parental writ without the slightest compunction.
We were duty bound to fulfill the wishes of our father in various ways and he would shower his blessings.
This blessings could be in various forms including chide, scold, reprimand etc.
Not very often but a stick too was used as an instrument of "correction" for those of us who were thought by these parents indifferent to their heedings.
At that time I would hardly realise that it was his love and concern for me that led him do that.
Perhaps love,care and concern found expression in our times mostly in that way only.
Snubbing & drubbing including "stick blessings" by father were in essence a blessing in disguise which I understood only when he passed away.
Today taking recourse to such snubbing & drubbings, leave alone stick beating, is nothing short of a luxury for almost all fathers of the present days.
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Despite it being so, in our times there was nothing to be called father's day or something like that.
Today, practically every day is son's day save one day which they have assigned to father for namesake.
Unlike today not a single day was a Son's Day.
In our times everyday was father's day. It continued as such even when the father grew old and his son became self-dependent in terms of earning.
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Lord Shree Ram would lay His head in reverence in the feet of His parents on a daily basis to indulge in duty supposed of him to be done.
प्रातकाल उठि कै रघुनाथा।
मातु पिता गुरु नावहिं माथा।।
आयसु मागि करहिं पुर काजा।
देखि चरित हरषइ मन राजा।।
Do fathers of the present days enjoy such autonomy even on the day called father's day?
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I don't know what my daughter who wished me on this day by sending a photo of hers with me captured in the recent past when we were together on an occasion in my ancestral home at Saharsa,thinks of me in respect of my feelings that I wrote above.
Happy Father's Day.
~राजीव रंजन प्रभाकर
१८.०६.२०२३.
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