My Hero – Father’s Day Special

Of love and togetherness, We shared many a moment

When I was five
My father was the greatest,
He was my Hero
Better than the best.

My best friend was he
When I was ten,
Someone to love and trust
And have lots of fun.

The kite that wouldn’t fly
The boat that refused to sail,
Every test my Hero passed
Not once did he fail.

Of love and togetherness
We shared many a moment,
His future he neglected
But never even once my present.

He regarded quality time
His most precious gift,
Even if it meant
Giving his career a bit of short shrift.

When I was twenty
He suddenly became a stranger,
I was Mister Know-All
And the cool, lonely ‘ranger’.

I thought he was a failure
Who had achieved nothing in life
Neither wealth, nor status nor position
He was merely a father to his son, a husband to his wife.

When he should have been climbing the ladder
He wasted his time on the family,
Instead of being busy in meetings
He was tending my hurting knee.

I envied my friend his father’s success
And felt very small,
How I wished my father too was a Chairman
So that I could strut proud and tall.

One day my friend saw my album
Of the time when I was nearly ten,
In it were all the memories
The love, the joy, the fun.

As he scanned the snaps
His face grew long and sad,
“I wish we could trade places
And I could have such a loving Dad.”

“I have everything,” my friend said,
“That money and status can buy
Yet in my album
There is no photo of Dad and I.”

“While I was growing up
My Dad too was busy growing,
And in my stock of photos
There is not a single one worth showing.”

“You have so many memories to treasure
While I have none,
Though I may have a swanky car and a big house
I have lost a childhood of love and fun.”

As my friend left
I had tears in my eyes,
How selfish and mean I had been
He made me realize.

I went to my father
A tired and crumpled man
I told him, “I am sorry,
But I love you more than anyone ever can.”

As he took me in his arms
And both of us began to cry,
He was once again my Hero
And I only five.

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About the Author

Ramendra Kumar ( 117 Posts)

Ramendra Kumar (Ramen) is an award-winning writer, performance storyteller and inspirational speaker with 49 books. His writings have been translated into 32 languages and included in 26 textbooks and many anthologies in various countries. Ramen has written across all genres ranging from picture books to adult fiction, satire, poetry, travelogues, biographies and on issues related to parenting and relationships. His writings have been published by the major publishing houses in India. His books brought out by National Book Trust (NBT), India have notched up sales of more than 4.9 lakh copies in just one year. Ramen has been invited to several international literary festivals as well as Indian events such as Jaipur Litfest and seminars organised by Sahitya Akademi and IGNOU. The author has won a total of 41 awards in the competition for writers of children’s literature organised by Children’s Book Trust (CBT) over the years, which is among the highest by any writer. Ramen was chosen as the ‘Author and Storyteller of the Year’ (2022), on ‘Talking Stories’, London, UK’s number one Radio Programme dedicated to the art of storytelling. He was nominated as a Jury Member for the Best Children’s Author Category of The Times of India’s ‘Women AutHer’ Awards, 2020. Ramen was also selected as a mentor for the Scholastic Writers Academy. An alumnus of the prestigious Hyderabad Public School (HPS), Ramen is an Engineer & an MBA. He and his inspiration, his wife Madhavi, were General Managers at SAIL, when they took Voluntary Retirement to pursue their respective passions. Their children are bonsai celebrities in their own right. While Ankita is a youth icon and a travel blogger with an Instagram following of 296 K, Aniket creates cool Apps and designs covers for his dad’s books. Ramen is now a Cancer warrior and an inspiration to many. His website is www.ramendra.in and he has a page devoted to him on Wikipedia.
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