Akshata - Blessings From A Daughter's Father

The day before his daughter's marriage Mr.Adhikesavan woke up earlier than their farm rooster, took a bath in ice-cold water and stood in front of Lord VINAYAKA in drenched clothes, and prayed from the bottom of his heart for his daughter's happiness. Then he applied sacred ashes on his forehead and proceeded to start the ritual.

First, he took raw rice and cleaned it thoroughly. Retaining only the full grains he proceeds to apply turmeric paste on each of the rice grains one by one. While applying turmeric on each rice grain he remembers his happiest moments with his daughter one by one, one memory for each grain. so the journey of the first grain starts from the memory of her birth, then the day she called him as a father for the first time then how he fed her baby food and how she fed him back before eating it, the day she graduated, the day she transformed from a girl to a woman, the day she became a successful Businesswoman, the day she found her right match in a gentleman and proceeded to inform her dad before proposing to the gentleman, and how he first met with his to be son-in-law although impressed with his gentle, patient, courteous behavior the thought of someone taking his daughter away from his house has been haunting him giving him sleepless nights from that day onwards.

Now with the final rice grain embedded with turmeric and fond memories, he completes the ritual and waits for tomorrow with happy tears in his eyes, when all the guests will be pouring blessings on the couple in the form of each and every happy memory he had with his daughter.