The age gap

 

A childhood photo of me with my father's portrait 

in the background

1. At the time I was born, my father should have been playing with his grandsons. Our age gap is quite unusual. It’s a fact of life - my father and I are at least 60 years apart. 

2. I suppose my father had not expected that his nephews would be 30 or 40 years my senior and. their children would be my peers, hence his indifference to family ties.

3. My father was in his declining years at the time I was growing up. The age gap had affected our relationship. There never was a father-son relationship in the usual sense.

4. Moreover, at the time he was already hard of hearing. We hardly talked to each other, as far as I can remember. 

5. I recall the one time I tried to be dear to him. I was seven or eight years old then. He was lying in bed while my mother was massaging his leg before going to sleep. I had my reader in one hand and asked him how to say the word “Percy” while pointing at it for him to see. He readily responded and I was quite happy. There would never be any more of such occasion ever again, as far as I recall.

6. Although we hardly ever had any father-son conversation, my father had had his plans to put me in schools of his choice but fate had it otherwise. I still vaguely remember my father taking me on my first day to school and grumbling about something as soon as we entered the office. Even then I realized that he was not satisfied with something ...