Keziah Turns Six

I still remember the day six years ago. It was at Baraha Hospital in Dubai. A friend of mine and I took turns to sleep in my car as Jeena was in the delivery room.
All night, the baby didn't come. It was the second night since Jeena was brought in.
In the morning more friends dropped in on their way to office in Bur Dubai.
The baby was considered a public property as all our friends were eagerly waiting for its arrival.

I just wanted to see its face. Only prayer was for a healthy baby.

By 8am, someone suggested that I should go and have my breakfast as it looked the baby would take more time to appear. I drove up to Annapoorna and had some lovely idli and vada--my only veg favourites.

I must have taken half an hour.

By the time I came back, there was no one where we had been waiting. I panicked. I ran into the hospital, and saw Annie Ammamma holding what looked like a bundle of fluffy joy.

That's it: Keziah Miriam Sabin had come into the world.

What a blessing! What a gift!

Someone asked me how I felt to be a father. Honestly, I didn't feel anything extra, or special. There was a kind of numbness.

I didn't have any paternal goose pimples looking at my baby. I didn't feel like top of the world looking at her face.

I was kind of resigned.

But the feeling of a father was later. When she began to grow into a cuddly little baby, I felt something like being a parent.

When he hummed her reply to my "Kezu" calls, I felt happy. I took her to my favourite Chinese restaurant when she was just six-month old and she was completely at home and had a few spoons of sweet corn chicken soup.
It was her baptism by soup. Ever since Keziah has been my friend and companion to visit various malls and restaurants.

These days she comes upto me and asks if we could just go out and have something from the Subway or the food court at the Technopark. Or, she just wants to roam around or go for a drive.

Sometimes I regret getting her used to all this, but then she has been my friend in my loneliness till I got back my soul-mate. Well, that's another story.

Today Keziah turns six.
Six years of parenting? I can't believe. I am sure I have not been the best Papa, but then out of my insecurity I keep asking her if she loves me. She gets so bugged and comes and gives me a half-hearted kiss on my cheeks and goes back to watch Mr Bean.

Her brother, Sean, the cry boy, has of late picked up his sister's liking for malls and Subways. But the poor boy cannot have ice creams or anything cold.

The injured look on his face when Keziah slurps down vanilla ice cream is a sight to behold!

To YOU, thank you for being with me this time. It matters a lot. A lot.