The Viral Lesson

 Hi Kapish,


The date today is 19th June, 2022 - It's Fathers' Day and while I did add a very nice picture of us on Instagram to tell the world that I am celebrating this special occasion, I wanted to write this blog to tell you the true feeling in my heart - one of regret!
 
You see, exactly one week back on Sunday, you suddenly took ill. Everything seemed fine, when suddenly you refused to eat breakfast and started to cry. No mater how much we tried to convince you to eat, you simply refused food and even went to sleep on an empty stomach in the afternoon. By evening, you had even refused to drink water and despite of giving you some medicine overnight, the next day you ran a fever in the range of 102F

We took you to your pediatrician, Dr Poonam Kamble, in Cloud9 on Monday where due to the heavy rush, we had to wait for over an hour to consult her. She examined you, and to our comfort, ensured us that there was no heaviness in your chest and no blockage in your nose or throat. She did tell us that this was probably a Viral fever which would would subside over the next 48hrs, but we had to keep a tight watch and measure your fever every 2 to 4 hours. She also mentioned that we had to ensure you have some sort of liquid food intake of approximately 1 to 1.2L per day for the medicine to show any effect

Both Mumma and me took an off from work, the next day, and decided to take care of you along with Aaji and Namma, but it was getting very difficult to feed you anything. We were loosing patience and even shouting loudly at you to eat something. At one point of time, I literally held you from the back and tried to force feed you some water, but you twisted and turned and refused again - at which point of time, I raised my voice again and used my hands to give you a tight slap on your thigh 
I clearly remember the face when you looked back, tears rolling down your cheeks, slowly moving away from me...
 
I was still very very angry on you, but immediately regretted hitting you. I had never ever done that before. Yes, I have been angry on many occasions and even used my strength to pick you up and sit you on the bed or pull you away from the living room into the bedroom, but I had never ever raised my hand before that day
 
However, what happened later that day literally made me regret my actions even more. In the evening that day (almost 14hrs since you had anything to eat), you woke up from your sleep and cam and hugged me. We sat on the sofa watching a Minion video on YouTube and out of nowhere, you ate 3 full Parle-G biscuits out of my hand!
Everyone was happy and your Mumma simply told me, "She loves you the most, so please dont loose yoru cool with her. She is just sick and doesnt want food - this is not her regular behaviour. So please dont be so hard on her!"
 
That literally broke me. I came into the study room, switched off the lights and shed a few tears. I told God that I had done a very wrong thing by hitting you and yelling at you. Later that day, I hugged you tight and even said Sorry to you from all my heart

Your illness had improved by Wednesday evening, but recurred again with a bad cough by Thursday evening. We then had to scramble to give you a cough syrup and some home made remedies which Namma made to cure you. By Saturday afternoon, a full week after you took ill, you finally started to show signs of improvement

As such, the past week was a pretty hard one for us to take as parents. Both Mumma and me deeply regretted shouting and yelling at you when you went on simply crying and not speaking a word of how you felt. We never ever wanted to compare you to any other 3.5yr old and force you to speak, but just felt that when you were sick, it would have made our lives easier if you had told us how you felt

From my side, I am writing this to say Sorry to you again. I will once again try to be a better father. Someday, when you are older and if you have kids of your own, you will see how much patience is needed to be good parents - hopefully, you will read this blog and not make the same mistakes which I made.... 

Until next time

Regards,
Dadoo

PS - this is the picture which Mumma clicked of us this morning and made it to my Instagram Stories
As I post this blog, I am glad to say this pic got 68 views (which is a high for my profile) 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Art of Arranged Marraige

This week began with my very dear cousin giving me the best news of the year that he has decided to get married. It all started a few months back. First the families met, which was followed by a few more meetings between the boy and the girl and finally they decided to tie the knot. My cousin is a gem of a person and a true gentleman. My ‘gonna-be-bhabhi’ is a real lucky lady. After all the congratulations, my mind shifted to the scary fact that I would be next in line for the coveted throne called ‘Marriage’. My thoughts go out to my poor ‘gonna-be-wife’. If you happen to read this anytime, I must say sorry in advance. “Arranged Marriage” – Now here is a word that has been redefined with changing times, here in India. Bollywood movies give a guy his very first impression of ‘seeing a girl’. The meeting takes place in the girls’ home. The guy has to sit there with his entire family and first only speak to the girls’ parents and relatives. That’s where they judge if the guy is capable ...
Read more

Ebbanad - II

(This is a continuation from Ebbanad - I. Please read that before continuing here) Our next destination was the forest shack where we were to camp that night. It was a 30 minute downhill trek and we were welcomed there with gracious helpings of veg pulao and curd rice. After rejuvenating ourselves, we began the main part of the trek – through the forests. Ever since our guide had joined us, he had kept telling us stories about their encounters with elephants and tigers. It had raised our hopes of catching a glimpse of a few along the way. But the important thing to remember was that the experience of the guides had been accumulated over decades of years and by calculating the average it was obvious that our chances of seeing any animal in one day was very bleak. Yet a walk through the forest was enough inspiration for me to pick up my stuff and start trekking. The entire trek lasted around 3 - 4 hrs. In the process we walked through thick jungle completely surrounded on both sides by s...
Read more

A Fairytale....

It was the 4th of July, I was in Mumbai looking forward to what was probably the most important day of my life. It was also the day that the Rain gods showered the might of the rains, on this island city. Little did they know that the rains were the last thing to stop me from meeting the most important girl I had ever known and to express my feelings for her. It had been raining all morning and I had kept my fingers crossed that it would eventually stop. I delayed my departure from my home for an hour in that hope, but at 11am I simply put on my jacket and left. I told her that I would be reaching at around 12:30pm, considering all the delays in the train……and it was real heartening to see her concern for me, as she made sure that I call her multiple times during my train journey from Tilaknagar to Vile-Parle . It took me well over an hour to reach my destination. I know, I know…I choose train station to meet my loved one. Most unromantic…...that too considering that I was half soaked...
Read more