Golden Moments

 It was the time of the late seventies or early eighties when I was a teenager. The time of Rajesh Khanna/Sharmila Tagore, Amitabh/Jaya, Dharmendra/Hema Malini movies. 

Those soft and meaningful songs. The golden time of Indian film music. 

The melodies voices of Lata, Asha, Kishore, Rafi and many more. 

There will hardly be a house where their songs were not heard. Ours was also one of them.

Every morning my father would start with a combo of a cup of tea with an old classic song sung by me.

Sometimes we used to play antakshari. While playing, we didn't even know when it was time for dad's office and my school to go. 

Those days were just awesome. Feeling nostalgic. 

Dad's one of the favourite songs was a song from an old classic movie "Khamoshi", "humne dekhi he un ankhon ki mehkti khshboo". Such beautiful and pure lyrics.

Time passes and I got married. Everything just changed. Now I got hardly any time to sit with my dad and recreate that time again.  

After almost 30 years of marriage, my dad was very sick. During that period, I got a chance to be with him during his last days of life. 

He was confined to a wheelchair. Daily in the evening, I took him to the nearby park.

Once on our way to the park, I was humming an old Hindi movie song. Seeing me singing, suddenly dad starts looking towards me. 

On seeing him looking towards me, I stopped singing and told him, "What happened dad".

" Dear, after many years, today again, I feel like listening to the same song, which you used to sing to me. Can you sing the same song for me today? I don't remember the name of the movie now, but the hero was Rajesh Khanna".

Then, after that day, every day the evening would start with the same song, followed by the old songs of his choice, and the process didn't stop until we came back home. 

It seemed that once again the old days had returned.

In adolescence, during those days the value of that time was not known, probably due to the burden of studies, immaturity and lack of time. Now being free from the job and other responsibilities, I wanted to enjoy every moment with my dad. 

But I had forgotten, now Dad did not have that much time left. Time is always not the same, change is consistently there. And once again that time was over. After a few days, dad's condition worsens and one fateful day he left for heavenly abode.

I miss those days, I miss those melodious songs of old Hindi movies, I miss him and I miss those memorable moments, we spent together. 

Let's all come together and spend quality time with our parents. Tomorrow we don't know but today is in our hands. Should make no room for regrets. All the little things we are doing with them, become some of our beautiful and beloved memories. Because we never know when we will see them for the last time. 

Hold golden moments spent with parents, close to the heart.