by Tanmoy Dey

Created on: June 07, 2009

I can count the hours that have plod by,since the first day when he held my fingers like touching the skin of a stranger.the warmth of the touch has grown,enough to dream of a time filled with warm moments,weaved by a father and his son.

I have had this dream since the very first day I held his hand home,to shut down the world behind me,with my busy work deadlines,household chores and social rituals,to spend a holiday in the lap of nature,far from the madding crowd.

I still remember the same date of the last month,when he looked at me for the first time,in my eyes,in the car,on our way home,with a beautiful blend of suspicion,sulk and question.I did not have any answers to his silent questions then,nor were my hands confident
to graze through his hair with a touch of care,so I could only return a smile,a smile that promised a happy future for my son.

I do not have a partner,nor do I tame a pet,but my life is complete with my child beside me.

It was a bright Saturday morning,and in accordance with my word to him a week back,I decided to spend this weekend on a loving note,to strenghen the feeling of bond and trust exuding from either end.we sailed through the roads and lanes,passing by the lovely grasslands and surrounding mahogany,as we headed outward from the city limits.

I have known this place,a valley in the countryside,since my school days,but now when I ask myself,I cant find an answer to the day when I was here the last time .

He got down from the car,took a deep breath and kissed the dew on the tip of his barefeet with his fingers.I could see the smile return on his face while I was driving down,away from the noise of the city.He looked up at the sky,and tried striking some chord with the chirping
sound of the birds around.

I was observing all of this sitting inside the car,but could not for long,as he turned round,peeped inside the window glass and asked me to come out,with a smile.

I felt about myself as a person who was no longer a stranger to him,if not a father,atleast a friend.I asked him to walk along,as I knew magical places there that would make him wonder in awe.He did,but holding my hand himself this time,may be he too felt the need of a friend,felt that someone can be welcomed inside the heart,felt a long lost feel of belonging retrieved.

We did some trekking,some playing with the waterfalls and some shouting for that reverberation standing at the edge of a mountain.

He made friends with some woodpeckers and some orchids,ran around like a mad butterfly after a long long wait for life,and through all his play and relish,I was all the time with him,running down,shouting and playing like a kid inside me that I had deserted 30 years ago.

Finally we were tired,and the sun was tired as well.At the end of all,he finally felt comfortable sharing with me the best of his times that he had lived in the orphanage,and the worst of them as well,and I felt it was a favourite book of mine that I was given a chance to read.

While driving back home,my baby was tired and slept off in the backseat of the car,to leave me cherishing moments of a day filled with fun and a feeling of belonging and bonding between a father and his son,two strangers sometime before.

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