Father’s Day Special…. Never Give up

“SAAT SAMUNDAR PAAR SE, GUDIYON KE BAZZAR SE, ACHI SI GUDIYA LANA. PAPA JALDI GHAR AANA CHAHE GUDIYA NA LANA, PAR PAPA JALDI AA JANA.” (Loose translation-From across the seven seas, from the wonderland, get me a doll papa. Don’t waste time on buying the doll, come home as soon as you can) My first memory of my father- recording this song in me and my sister’s voice so that he could remember us while sailing in the sea. As a sailor in the Indian Navy, my father used to be away from us for half of the year at a stretch. With no letters/phone calls allowed, he had invented this ingenious way of being in touch with us. He had gifted my mother with a tape recorder and used to tape his voice on a dicta phone and post us the cassettes from wherever he was. And we used to follow the same practice. Once, we did not meet him for a year or so, neither did we hear his tapes. We kept wondering when he would return. One mid-night when I heard his voice and woke up, I was disappointed to see...