Handle With Care... (Part I)

‘Relationship’ according to Oxford dictionary is an alliance or an affinity but in real sense of the term, a relationship is a lot more than this. In fact, when it comes to a ‘father-daughter’ relationship, it requires an ocean of emotions which at times are really difficult to handle. Navya and her father witnessed one such ‘handle-with-care’ relationship. They all say, “Every father is his daughter’s first love and his son’s first hero” and the best part is that this quote holds so true in the real world. Navya was a girl who stepped into adulthood only a few months back. Yes, she was eighteen and was filled with emotions of all sorts. Teenagers, as we all know are a bunch of kids who are always treated as ‘aliens’ on planet Earth. One day, Navya sat all alone relishing the pages of memories between her and her dad in the book called life.

It was quite strange for her now, as the relationship between her and her father had drastically changed. She was unable to understand that why that generation gap had crept in. Why the simple things are becoming so complicated that now it seems almost impossible to mend them? She could not understand the reason behind such an indifferent attitude. Maybe, it was supposed to be this way or maybe the things were not actually the way she had an outlook towards them. Maybe she was the one at the wrong side and not her father or maybe there was nothing wrong or right only different perspectives. She was deeply engrossed in her thought-process when all of a sudden a tear drop left her eye and rolled down her right cheek finally disappearing at her chin. She kept on thinking that how earlier being a small kid she used to wait like idiots for her father to return so that she could tell him even the little things of least importance and now Navya wanted to take even the major decisions all by herself. Earlier, a small mistake, and she was ready with a ‘sorry-card’ but now even after wounding her father’s trust she was unable to really set things right. It was not that she didn’t care, obviously she did, but now she enjoyed being isolated. She never considered her father’s lectures as ‘interference’ but she could just never find a friend she longed for in her father.

She remembered how her father used to teach her things which were really important to shape up her life. He once said, “A smiling face is the first step to success.” To Navya’s ‘what-to-do-and-what-not’ problems, he always used to reply, “See child, always choose to do what you really want to and not what people want you to do.” His encouraging words always acted like ‘Glucon-D’, so full of instant energy and I guess his convincing power was equally well because each time Navya got tangled in a situation, he helped her do the rightful. But since, Navya was a teenager; her outlook largely depended on emotions. Earlier what she considered as her father’s caring nature was now termed as ‘over-protectiveness’. She was relishing freedom but at times she wanted more of it which according to his father was simply ‘misuse’. Maybe he was right because excess of anything is bad. Maybe it was she who was demanding more than what she deserved. Whatever is the case, the overprotective nature of his father was getting problematic for her day by day and she wanted to break free. That was the only reason why she wanted to be in the company of her friends.

Now, she started feeling that her parents don’t understand her well. It was only her friends who could figure out even with a simple ‘Hello!’ that there was something wrong going on. Navya was so depressed that she started spending nights weeping and lamenting on the fact that she was not a good daughter. Yes, there was positivity left but only for the world standing outside to see while in the corner of her heart she knew she was all alone because she could feel that her parents were supporting her only out of duty not out of love and her friends whom she considered the dearest on planet Earth were the ones who always used her for their own benefit. The thought was almost disheartening for Navya because she was not living a single happy life but was only pretending to be jolly. She was completely a different personality with her friends, teachers and her parents. Each of them knew a different Navya who was uncomprehendable.

For her friends she was never selfish but for her father, she really was self-oriented. She knew that her father was her well-wisher and always cared about her well-being but she wanted him to care and not to doubt. Deep inside her heart, Navya always admitted that yes, she had broken her parents’ trust for ‘someone’ but she also admitted that she was really sorry about it and to rectify the mistakes she had chosen her father and mother over that ‘someone’. For her it was a really difficult choice to make that’s why she couldn’t figure out that wasn’t it a choice big enough to prove her love for her parents. Earlier Navya was her father’s ‘priceless princess’ but now she was only a family member....

To be continued...