Raju Ganapathy

Drama

3  

Raju Ganapathy

Drama

Dad And Daughter

Dad And Daughter

5 mins
209


As a writer for me, Harper Lee who wrote the book “To Kill a Mocking Bird” serves as the light at the end of a dark tunnel. The story goes that this was actually her second book as the publisher had asked to revise her book so substantially, she decided to write a new one and the rest as they say is history. Like Lee’s hero Atticus Fitch (dad) I too am a father. So, this story is about dad and daughter. My daughter and I are a case of so near and yet so far. She still lives with me although she has grown up to be a fine adult. Things we discuss are mundane. Sometimes she will ask “what shall we order, Dad?” Or “when are we going for the next holiday?” 

So, I decided to have imaginary conversations with her in the form of memes. I downloaded a picture of dad and daughter having conversations from Google and wrote suitable conversations as captions. Typically, the daughter would ask a question and the dad would reply. I started a separate space in Quora.com with the title Dad and Daughter. It is picking up with a reasonable number of views. My good friend responded to me that this cartoon ensemble has the potential to become like a common man icon. 

Sample these conversations: 

Dad, they say the RTO has fixed bribe charges for various services. How much does it cost to get a 4-wheeler license? 

Dad: It will cost many lives on the road. 

Dad, if 12 inches is a ruler what is 56 inches?

Dad: misrule. 

Tongue in cheek you could say.

There was a time when I got initiated into running since I was accompanying her for athletic coaching. Her coach egged her to run a 10k and I accompanied her in her first run. I too could do it and we enrolled in our first 10k run in the famous TCS run of Bangalore. While in college she stopped but I continued her run until I completed my first half-marathon at the ripe age of 58. 

These days we both are into cycling. We bought our used gear cycles and now find ourselves geared for cycling each morning. The cycle is a nice metaphor for life and the human relationship itself. While we navigate the ups and downs in the Bangalore roads my minds harps on the ups and downs in our relationships as well. You ride over potholes on the road reminding one of the bumps in a relationship as well. As a cycle needs regular maintenance and oiling the parts so does a relationship requiring maintenance and smoothening. I find listening to her is a good lubricant in our relationship. 


Cycling of course is exhilarating when the cool breeze gushes past you and one feels a surge of good hormones and the world is at your feet. A good relationship brings along joy. The best part is one need not be too wealthy for practising cycling. 

For about a month my daughter took a fancy to making sushi at home. So, I like ‘Atticus the dad’ march to the Sagar (shop’s name) and ‘fitch’ home some prawns, clean the veins, wash them and keep it ready. That is all it takes and one need not swim across over the seven seas. Then she takes over. We have now a stock of sticky rice, soya sauce, Nori sheets (made of seaweed). It has become a Saturday ritual as we as a family are quite religious about food. We enjoy the homemade Sushi, at one-fifth the cost of what otherwise we would have spent ordering with a drink. I wrote a haiku 

Celebration of

Haiku with sushi and drinks

Made in heaven thing. 

Daddy cools indeed as one of the readers commented on the Dad and Daughter memes. Now I see myself in the mould of a philosopher and friend, hemming my way to my daughter. 

Together as a family we also have discovered our salad days. As we made our salad, I penned the following verse

Salad days are here to stay

Fresh and crisp makes us sway.

Iceberg and lettuce, if one may use

Olives and cheese as you please.

Homegrown tomato, that should be our motto

Cucumber to skin and slice it up please do remember.

Figs and raisins to add them is no sin.

Ready to serve for a meal or as a snack in between. 


Back to the life cycle, I would recommend that every man should have this ‘deadly’ feeling in life and sire a daughter. It is a sheer experience and one doesn’t have to be a seer to see it. It is not ‘farther’ from the truth. 

Another topic which she hates discussing is money. She of course is a spendthrift and knows no thrift as such. So, here I am trying to make money with stocks, a new-year resolution. Ill-timed the analysts would say. I don’t intend to become a broker but hope not to go broke but break even with my expenses. 

I just received notification from Quora informing me that viewership for my Dad and Daughter memes has crossed 5000, i.e., averaging over 100 views per meme. Someday as my friend predicted I would publish my memes and see if it clicks as good as the ‘common man’ cartoons.

Let me sign off with this submission with yet another sample from Dad and Daughter memes.

Dad, would you bear with me?

Dad: what do you think I have been doing all these 24 years.

Hope you caught the pun of it. 

Ps: the picture to this story is a bay-side view of Dad and Daughter. 


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