Who I am today...

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear dada jaan, happy birthday to you!” My shrill voice rang out of the phone on the bright and hot morning of June 1, 1998. “What are you doing at home?” instead of a regular thank you, he replied in a worried voice, “don’t you have an exam today?” Laughing I explained it was in the second half of the day; I couldn’t have stayed at home and not wished him. It was my grandfather’s eighty fourth birthday and my F.Sc examination for biology.I had not lived with my grandfather all my life as we kept moving from place to place according to my parents’ jobs, even still, I remember him teaching me how to tie my shoe laces when I was a child. Everybody else had given up on me. They’d tell me to take the left lace above the right and I’d end up with a pile of untie-able knots and a puppy eyed look in my large eyes! “All you people are worthless, come baita, I’ll show you how it’s done!” he said in his rich, deep, sonorous voice that would shake his sons up even though they were all grown up and had families of their own. Sitting in the living room converted bedroom that I saw him live in all his life, he asked me to find his shoes from under his bed. Crawling under the bed I emerged with a shoe as large as half my arm and heavy as an anvil! With his gigantic foot in his massive shoe next to my tiny foot and miniature shoe, it seemed like something out of Gulliver’s adventures. Slowly and steadily he went over each step of tying shoe laces as I followed with my small hands, in a few minutes I was viciously tying and untying my shoelaces over and over again! “Yipppeeeeeeeee, I can tie my laces dada jaan!” I yelped, “Yes my dear, you can!” He laughed throwing his head back, the way he always would, well, whenever he’d laugh!My grandfather was by far the strictest man I have EVER come across. He was in the police and an undercover intelligence bureau director for 14 years. Those fourteen years had ended when my father was still at college, which was when he had retired from work, so I never got to see his PEAK times of life but was anyway, exposed to his stern disposition all my life. He would seldom laugh and usually yell at his sons. Hell what has that got to do with us? We grandkids had always been the apple of his eye. Six feet plus, he stood taller than all five of his sons and even at eighty four years of age, he shaved regularly! Our favourite stunt would be when he’d move his ears without touching them! Eeeeeeeeks it was freaky but fun! He was scary for elders but fun for us. What could be better than that? It was like our play pal was the Supreme Court at home! He’d even get to scold our parents if he thought they were out of line. Now how cool was that? There was still an invisible line that even we couldn’t cross, he was still DADA JAAN and we were kids. We were still scared of him to some extent, but if mom and dad would have to say something to him that might flare him up they’d usually use us as a go-between.