Father's Day ...

It was 2:30 in the morning when Manohar Parsad Yadav called me from his home town in Bihar.

Manohar: Sahid Bhai so rahen hain kiya?
Me: Nahi Bhaiyya, tumhare phone ka intezaar kar ra rahe the - Kiya hua?.....
Manohar: Kaa karen hum bada confoose hoon Sahid bhai..Pita Ji se milne ayaa hoon. kiya baat karoon samajh nahi aa raha hai. Aap kuch bataiye...aap to writer hain.
Me:Bhaiyya main raat ke 2:30 writer nahi hota hoon, neend ka maara hua hota hoon.
Manohar: Please kuch acchi baat batayen.....
Me: Keh dena ke main ne Bush ko vote nahi diya tha...
Manohar: Ye kiya baat hui?
MeL Ok - Keh dena ke agar ek inspector swaal kareagaa to ek mujrim jwaab dega - Ek baap swaal kargea tabhi ek beta jwaab degaa.
Manohar: kuch suna sa lagta hai....
Me: Accha bol de ke Anarkarli qaid kar li gayee aur main dekhta rahaa...

Manohar: Sahid bhai ye sab to filmon ke dialogues hain?
Me:Bhaiya itni raat ko original dialogues Peer Shakespeer bhi nahi laya hoga....isi se kaam chalao...kal subah likh doonga.
Manohar: Aap haamre Pita ji ko nahi jaante hain Sahid bhai...
Me: Manohar, Duniya main ek hi baap hai.....ek hi maa hai.......aur ek dost hai...

On this day when the world has just finished celebrating Father's day I am witnessing the lack of communciation between two people that must be talking to each other on hourly basis. However, I must confess that I do not have much experience of communicating with my father either.

I remember his "dehshat" and anger was so well known that when he used to walk in the house everyone from mom to small kids used to look for cover. Invariably, I used to find myself in the middle of a patang (kite) match. I was so scared of him that I used to freeze and as a result jebronis who do not know how to spell kite, used to kato my kankawaa (patang)...

I have grown up now and have a 100% success rate in kite flying. Not that I have learned to cope with an angry father and ladao patang at the same time, but I have completely stopped flying kites!!

Coming back to father-son duel - I think it is really sad that in 21st century we have not been able to bridge the "emotional gaps" in relationships. We have coolest means of communication but we have stopped expressing to each other. During my last trip to Mumbai, I observed that Mumbaiakrs are so short on expression. If I have to write a small list of dialogues that I heard during a month of stay it would be:

1- 2 Virar ke ticket dena?
2: In Kameeno se kaho kam se kam shave to kiya karen...junglee bane ghumte hain.
3: Allah / Bhagwan ke naam pe kcuh khaane ko de do
4: Main tere ko miss call kiya tha na !
5: Aur sab theek hai US main?
6: Apun to Bachele main bhi reh gele hain..
7: Bush ko kitne saal baki hain?

I live on words and humor. For me being not able to connect to any human being be black, white, brown, male, female, young or old is an insult. I tried to come up with something humorous and new that I could suggest to Manohar but failed. I don’t know why I could not fill that "emotional gap" which my friend Manohar was experiencing that Saturday afternoon in Madhuban, Bihar.

This is how it is on father's day!