Happy Birthday Abbu!

“Abbu”, this little word is so full of love & emotions. Everytime, I am knocked down by someone, I remember a voice cheering me up, telling me to stand tall and rise above all my fears.

Abbu. Me. Mom.

As a kid, that too a mischievious kid, I remember asking just too many irritating questions while we drove around the city, and I remember abbu answering all my queries with much composition to make me satisfied.

Fathers are special. Not because they are the ones who made us, but because they are the ones who spent the best years of their lives to supply their children with the best of everything. They do it with a responsibility which is wrapped in love.

Abbu, pops, buddy, daddy, Yaar .. these are all the words I call my dad with. I have known the world through his eyes, I have seen people through his judgement and most importantly, I have seen the other gender through him.

When I used to see him offering help to mom in her household chores, I thought he loved her, But today when I see him offering help to his daughter-in-laws, I know, he’s a thorough gentleman at heart.

I spent the 23 years of my life, wondering to do something, someday that could make my parents proud. For that, I needed a lot of exposure, handling people, knowing to break out of the conventional boundaries. For that I needed a comfortable gesture of being at ease around people. I learned the art of humbleness from him. I gained insights to people, arts, culture, languages, politics, sports via him. He was my first window to music.

He was the first man to hold my hand and introduce me to the world so proudly as his “beti”. I look upto all men in this world, like him, who lift up their daughters/wives/sisters/ from the veils of unaccustomed societal pressures and introduce them to the world, as individuals who have dreams, who have a destiny, who mark an impression with their characters, values & nature. It never means that women should forget their core values. But it means that you are doing something other than the destined chores for you. Giving back to the society, bringing out the best out of yourselves and in turn creating a more equivocal society.

Today, when I look back at all the independence I’ve enjoyed in my entire life as a single girl, I know, not everyone in our part of the world enjoys it. It is because of the unconditional trust my parents invested in me, that has never lead me to lie to them (offcourse without exceptions :P ).

Also, not that, I’ve had a fairy-tale childhood. No. We’ve had our shares of financial constraints, the goods & bads of a typical family life in Pakistan. But I saw my father pulling us out of everything, like a true man who would explain lessons to every heartbreak. And would tell us to not lose faith.

As someone who always stood by me, in my bad and good times, I know I can never pay him back, for his kindness, his love, his youth, his words .. But I want to be here for him, unconditionally. I love you and I love the fact that you love your family, you love us all, even more!

As, the Holy Book says in Surah Bani Israil 17:24:

صَغِيرًا رَبَّيَانِي كَمَا ارْحَمْهُمَا رَّبِّ

(My Lord! bestow on them Thy Mercy even as they cherished me in childhood)

HAPPY 62ND YEAR YOUNG-AT-HEART MAN! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBU. HAVE LOTS MORE TO COME INSHA ALLAH <3 b="">