Moments to Memories
When my father visited me this past month, I was stoked for it had been a
while since we saw each other. He lives in Africa, time zones away from India
and has been living there for over a decade now. Usually, whenever he visits
me he brings all kinds of duty free chocolates or sweets and kilos of dry fruits
and this time was no different. Assorted chocolates are the way to my heart.
While he's in India, our routine is pretty much the same, wake up and brew
a mildly ginger flavoured chai to make his morning. My father loves chai, I've
witnessed him having four to five cups a day, but that's only when he's working
a lot. But he enjoys the chai I make, the taste never changing. He doesn't like
the chai to sit too long on his tongue, but that only happens when the brew is
milk-thick or too strong. He needs his cup with at least two slices of buttered
toasts, that are slightly golden brown and the butter is melting like a cube of
ice outside the freezer.
He then likes to watch the news, the maladies of the national politics
mainly, and all these channels were only reporting about the Pulwama attack
of 2019, and India's second surgical strike. By the time the sun is bright enough
for everyone to be out of bed, he mutes the television and starts making phone calls to clients at work, while I prepare a small breakfast for him, and it
usually consists of two sunny side up eggs with three slices of brown bread,
slightly toasted.
After his stomach is full of food, it's time for his first round of Hookah, while
he watches more news where the Political Parties are debating against each
other, about the rising tensions between India and Pakistan. When I get bored
of the news channels circulating the same news back and forth I ask dad to
change the channel to which his option is a game of Cricket between India and
Australia. That sucks even more. But since I live alone, I've only subscribed to
Netflix and Amazon Prime to watch my favourite shows. Even the news he
watches is from YouTube. So sports channels are a big no. After this he has his
bath and an afternoon nap. Another piping hot cup of chai for the evening and
then make the brightest decision of the day, what to have for dinner?
Although everyday is not the same, twice we went to a dentist to cover up
my father's missing half tooth, or visit the doctor for his diabetic check ups and
buy tons and tons of medicines that he has to consume and I'm not
comfortable with, this routine becomes a habit by the second week. The third
and fourth week go by lazily and then comes the week when he starts packing
his luggage.
The final week of his visit, he always gets playful. He'll purposely torture me
by making chewing sounds, pretend to drink water and then suddenly spit it on
me or out of nowhere scare the living daylights out of me, by jumping out of a
corner. After all of this, he comes forward for a hug and for all I know his
intentions are to only tickle me to my death. I got that from my paternal
grandmother.
And then comes the day he actually has to leave. Even when I help him pack
a little, it doesn't really dawn on me that he's leaving until the moment arrives.
He is not very stoked to leave me either but it doesn't show on his face, it
shows in his actions the way he'll playfully put it away by tickling or scaring me.
By the time I book his intercity uber to the International Airport in Mumbai, we drag his luggage down and wait for the cab at half past eleven. We bid each
other goodbye with a hug and a kiss to the cheek. Once the car leaves the gate,
I enter my building and check the letter box on the way only to find it empty. I
then get into the elevator and punch the eleventh floor.
It is when I sit on the couch all quiet for a moment I think what will I do next
morning? Whom will I make tea for? With whom will I smoke a pot of Hookah,
the leftover mint flavour father likes? I push the thoughts away by pulling the
blanket over my head, leaving the hair out and drift into oblivion.
*****
Dayal Punjabi is a Nigerian
born Indian poet/essayist. His debut collection of
poetry and prose, Notes From The Heart was self-
published in May 2018 and became a best-seller on
kindle India. The book was further nominated for a TCK
Publishing Reader’s Choice Awards in the Self-Help
category. His second book and first essay collection,
Handmade Heaven with four personal essays was
released on Juggernaut Books on their writing
platform. The book in it’s entirety will be published in
2019. You can check out his newly released collection, "Sea Full Of Stars" here.