“Papa, papa mujhe gaadi me ghuma jana hai!!!” (Papa I want to go for a drive), said a super excited and energetic four year old Lucy while hugging his father who had just stepped into the house. It had been a long day for him at work but Lucy’s energetic and happy smile always charged Richard up. So keeping his bag aside and changing his clothes Richard took Lucy for the drive as he wished.

On the way, Lucy chirped a long list of demands saying, “mujhe chocolate chahiye aur mujhe juice bhi chahiye aur mujhe burger bhi chahiye aur vegetables bhi chahiye papa..!! Haan, aur mango bhi chahiye” ( I want to have a chocolate and a juice and a burger and vegetables and yes! I also want a mango) to which Richard smiled and said, “sab kuch le lenge”( we will buy all of it).

Teena, Lucy’s mother who was a silent smiling witness to all of it was remembering her father through all of this. She thought to herself what does the word ‘papa’ mean exactly? Is it only a father? Or it also means a Superman? Or a super powerful human being ? A person who can get the clouds on earth for his child or pluck the stars for his child’s precious smile?

Over the years and generations maybe the content of a child’s demands would have changed but the sparkle in his eyes and the confidence in his voice that by just saying it out ‘papa’ can make everything right and possible continues to be just the same. It’s a precious, most secured and a timeless feeling, Teena thought to herself.

With time one probably forgets the conversations they would have had with their father as a young one, but the feeling of security in his presence and the confidence that with him watching your back nothing is impossible is precisely what works as the magical blessing throughout one’s life to keep one going..! Maybe that’s why it is said “papa ka saya hi kaafi hai” (Having your father watch your back is all that you will need to succeed in life). Teena’s line of thoughts were broken by the giggling and chattering of Lucy and Richard as they called out her name but the smile those thoughts brought on her face lingered on for some time.