Kids R Cool

By Bitu Thomas

My dad passed away this January. It happened so suddenly that I couldn't see him on his death bed. He was given the best medical treatment, money could buy, yet God wanted him at His side and therefore 2 heart attacks on the same day took him away from us.

My dad was a Secretary.He had started out as a stenographer when he was 17 years old. Though very smart, he did not have enough cash to get through college and therefore always instilled in us that Education was a weapon.

He was always someone who surprised me with his ever increasing vocabulary in English. Just when I thought that I had learned it all and that I was one of the biggest scrabble gurus born, he would humble me by using a new word which I had never even heard of.

I would even go so far as to argue with him that such a word didn't exist until I would make myself check with the Oxford or Cambridge and find that it did exist and was there all along. I would be flabbergasted within but cool and composed outside.

As years passed, I grew to admire him and respect him so fastidiously that if there was ever anything I required that needed to be done with letters or drafts.. I felt that noone could do it better than him.

My first letter, my first Resume, my first leave letter..everything was done by him.

When he passed away I was chilled with shock. There was so much left for him to teach me, and then I heard a small voice whisper within me ...It was done ..I had learnt it all. He was within me waiting to be passed on to the next generation.