That Evening Dad and I Looked Outside

While driving back home from my class, i was thinking that I haven’t written about my father. Ever. My father is the reason i chose to be a chartered accountant. When I was young, for many years i did not understand what he did. I mean, how can you explain balance sheets to a 10 year old ? Whenever people asked me , i said CA. Once I thought CA meant cartoon artist and i thought WOW in my head. It took me some time to fully understand his profession ( read class 10) and whenever i told people what he is, i was greeted with WOW, the exams are so hard to crack. I was fully inspired and thought to myself , Pooja you are fairly smart, have taken commerce so the next obvious step is CA. Lo karli Maine CA. For a good 10-12 years i did exactly that. The hard profession. Made my father proud ( hopefully). When he heard that i wanted to leave my job and pursue art for sometime, there was a big chunk of him that couldn’t fathom why would i even do this. So many years of hard work and I’m just throwing it down the drain ? It took him some time to understand that sometimes it’s okay to deviate from the usual path and do something different. Even though there were many times he and i did not see eye to eye, he always rooted for me. It was visible from small things such as putting up my paintings as his status, sharing my paintings with his friends. It was because of him that i made my first big sale at Bikaner House. My mother has always said that my father and i are exactly the same. Full of anger, very stubborn, too direct for her liking. Because of these amazing similarities, arguments become difficult to resolve. BUT, inspite of the ego issues, my father will always be found standing next to my door after a big fight. He will say - chal Pooja noodles khate hai, chicken flavour ke hai. I’ve never sat and had coffee with my father. I dont think we have gone out alone to a coffee shop and done some chit chat. In my mind, coffee dates are somehow reserved for friends. BUT what if he and i did go out ? We will definitely fight about something and come back. But atleast there will be coffee and him.